General_Relativity's blog

Why did top coders stop streaming?
By General_Relativity, history, 20 months ago, In English

I am new to competitive programming. I thoroughly enjoy watching top coders solve contest problems live / in a virtual contest. In fact, it was the tourist stream that inspired me to start competitive programming. Unfortunately, both tourist and Errichto have stopped streaming (the last youtube video was uploaded 6 months ago). I would've loved to watch their streams after the contest (in which, even I participated). Does anyone know the reason? Was it covid (lockdown) that made them do the stream but they eventually stopped?

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20 months ago, # |
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There are sometimes uploads from the best and all beloved SecondThread with real-time screencasts and good problems explanation. Can definitely recommend looking throw his youtube channel.

UPD: But i also wonder why those cool guys stopped streaming and i don't know the reasons

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    20 months ago, # ^ |
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    For me, it has largely been a combination of conflicting requirements for time sensitive things which have prevented me from participating in some of the recent rounds over the past few weeks. Largely, it's been a combination of work related things which couldn't wait, meetings, and Hacker Cup prep which I've been doing on my free time that would otherwise be taken up by CF practice or contests.

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      20 months ago, # ^ |
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      Good Morning! Sad to hear, but anyway looking forward to your returning to the road to LGM!

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20 months ago, # |
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ecnerwala also stop streaming but he said on his discord server that he is busy nowadays so don't know when they come back

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20 months ago, # |
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I guess they have a life outside CP, streaming is not a job after all.

Also, I think Geothermal should be added to the list, I really enjoy his explanations to the problems.

PS: Sorry for the ping

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    20 months ago, # ^ |
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    I guess

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    20 months ago, # ^ |
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    I mean, this doesn't explain why they stopped doing it. They didn't have a life outside cp when they streamed?

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      20 months ago, # ^ |
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      Your priorities change over time. Maybe they prioritize family time over streaming now or something else.

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    20 months ago, # ^ |
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    I agree. I'm now back in school so I can graduate. I have no life.

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20 months ago, # |
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The truth is most of the audience wants average content, for which there are already plenty of youtube channels. When it comes to advanced stuff, not everyone is interested, hence the views are low, and hence lesser incentive for the top coders.

People seem to be more interested in dopamine hits, like tmwilliamlin168's winning Kickstart video, etc.

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    20 months ago, # ^ |
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    This seems to be the most plausible explanation. I would've loved it if there were some top coders who upload videos anyway. Personally, I like to learn from videos as compared to blogs. But again, more advanced topics (research papers for example) are only available in text form. I guess it'll take about 50 more years for our society to accept something like "research videos (it could be in a lecture format)" as a traditional form of advancement in academia. I digressed a lot here ig.

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