one thousand!
It has been a really long while since I have last updated. I was waiting for this moment. Finally I've broken the 1000 problem mark (My 1000th was a nice problem with an interesting solution that involves binary search). Next "nice" number will be 1024.
If you look hard at the statistics, more than half of the solutions are in C++, that means those problems are probably solved after NS. That was the time I changed from using plain vanilla C and hand-coded data structures to abusing C++ STL data structures (under g++, stl set and map are implemented as a red-black tree, a balanced binary search tree).
There has been a problem that has been bothering me. I probably cannot solve it myself due to my terrible problem solving skills in probability. What is the expected waiting time of a bus at a bus stop at a given time, given that you have all the statistics like published timetable of the buses leaving the bus interchange and so on. Now, suppose you are waiting for 2 buses instead of 1. What about 3? How does it generalize?
Speaking of this problem, CK was telling me that our education system has turned us into impatient problem solvers. We are guided by parts in the question to solve problems. However, in the real world, we are bombarded with too many information and we need to filter out the useless information and make use of the correct information to solve the problem. Recently I was asked by Prof Chan to give a proof of why the center of a p-group is non-trivial. It was like I completely forgotten all about Algebra. Only when he gave the hint "class equation", I remembered how to prove it.
These days I am very confused. I do not know what I want to do in the future. However, I know what I do not want to do in the future. 2 years to graduation. I wonder what lies ahead. I wish I have a clear idea of what I want. I know my short term goal for now is to qualify for world finals. I have given up SEP for it. Lets just hope my sacrifice was worth it. (Adhiraj and Hung, lets qualify!)
There is an interesting article on quarterlife crisis.
Labels: useless stuff
posted by roticv @ 7:50 PM
2 Comments:
Don't worry too much about not knowing what you want in the future. All of us go through it. 1 year before my graduation, I still do not know, and now even when I have a rather clear sense of what I want, I am still open to changes and it still CAN change at any time. You still might not know what you want in the future when you graduate, but it's important thinking about it now.
It's important to know what you do not want. A friend told me it is important (for her) that she found out what job she did not want to stay in, by actually GETTING the unwanted job (which she initially thought would be OK). Coz now she knows for sure she don't want to stay in that line.
I live by 1 basic philosophy - you've gotta enjoy what you're doing. That's all I want to achieve in whatever I do in the future.
Concentrating on your goal now is good! Big goals are achieved by starting small! Following down this path, soon you'll find out what you want.
Hope it gives you some encouragement and another viewpoint!
Sorry, I have verbal diarrhoea very often. Hehe.
Here is where the master acknowledges that the student has surpassed him. You have earned your wings and have proven to be superior: congratulations! (=
As for the future, it is good to have a rough idea of what you can consider doing, and then when the time comes, decide. The world is ever-changing -- who knows what the future brings to us?
Always remember that a person with skills can always find a way.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home