This is a draft post. I’m still reading the book. I’m writing my thoughts while reading the book, which may be useless to others.

Updating Identity

What if you didn’t need money or attention?

What am I doing (or want to do) just for the sake of money or attention?

Forcefully learning data structures and algorithms.

Software engineer job.

Funless, money-focused YouTube.

Website (sometimes I feel like I’m doing something to influence or due to the influence of others).

There may be some more things that I subconsciously do for attention, and I’m not aware of.

What would I do then?

I’ve just one life. As it is often said, what will I regret not doing on my deathbed? What are the things that I like to do? and will do without worrying about money or attention?

पहला सुख निरोगी काया

I would focus on my health. I would get myself indulged in Yoga and try to follow best practices in diet.

Apart from physical fitness, I would indulge in competitive programming to have a healthier and more active mind.

I would share my thoughts, learnings, experiences, beliefs, and happenings with the world so that it can be of benefit to someone. I would follow both local and global approaches so that my content would reach to remote parts of the world and I can be useful to my local community as well.

I would meditate and try to follow the core principles I’ve learnt from the Brihaddharma Purana’s excerpt. I would enjoy the natural beauty.

All of this is becoming too idealistic. But it’s fine. Let me talk to myself and understand what I actually want, what I’m doing and what I should do. Actually, when I live ideally (ideal for others, but real for me), I’m very happy. I feel like I am one of the happiest people in the world. I was living such a life until a few months (or a year) ago. But now, the accumulation of small bad habits has turned me into an unhappy, ignorant person. So, the so-called ideal behaviour is not really ideal for me. It’s real. It’s who I am. It’s part of my identity.

I would teach the things that I know and would learn more for the same.

You don’t have to be local.

Right now, my focus is being global. First, I’ve to work on my habits to live the life I wish. Along with that, I will be sharing my thoughts, learnings, experiences, beliefs, and happenings on my site and may be on YouTube as well. I’ll start to uplift my local community once I feel I’m ready to contribute.

Actions, not words, reveal our real values.

I want to:

be a competitive programmer.

learn data structures and algorithms.

learn graphic design.

share my learnings and experiences at my site.

be a creatorpreneur.

But do I actually want to? If I really wanted to learn or do those things, I would have done them. I’ve been thinking about these things for the past four years but never did them. Looking at my actions and knowing myself, It’s evident that I really don’t want to do those things. I actually prefer the simple, lazy life I have now, learning or exploring things, watching random YouTube videos or movies, and practising easy problems.

No matter what you say, your actions reveal the truth.

Let’s admit my real priorities (current). Before this year’s end, I must show myself what I really want through my actions.

Competitive Programming

I decided (thought) to be a competitive programmer in the first half of 2021. I started solving problems on Codeforces in May 2021. Since then, I’ve tried indulging myself in this sport many times. But I’ve found myself quitting it as I faced any obstacle in continuing my learning. Actually, my approach was wrong. I was focusing on solving problems rather than learning from them. I was thinking of being a Master rather than developing my problem-solving skills. This violated the core rule: Enjoy the process, don’t think about the goal.

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि।। सर्वशास्त्रमयी श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता 2.47।।

Over time, I realized that one can only become a competitive programmer by having a learning mindset and enjoying the journey.

But why do I want to get indulged in competitive programming?

I love the very concept of competitive programming. Just keep learning, enjoying the process without any goal in mind. The only goal is to be a better programmer. I want to indulge my mind in a learning process where I don’t have to memorize stuff and where my mind exercises rigorously.

In the future, I want the kids of my community to be competitive programmers.

What stops me whenever I start/resume this journey?

When I get stuck on a problem, then after trying for hours, I quit. Sometimes, I move to another problem, and sometimes I move to another field.

Taking a break after getting stuck is fine, but quitting it completely becomes a problem. Then, it becomes hard for me to reinitiate problem-solving. I indulge in other activities (web development, graphic designing, or anything else).

I’ve learnt that CP is about solving problems fast.