Programming Contests, Algorithms, and the Real World Steven Skiena

As an ICPC competitor, I don't even find these tales all that cautionary. It's a well known fact that those who do best in standardized tests do not excel the most in the workforce. Programming contests are no different.<p>And to be fair, I'm not really sure that I even agree that going off to go work at Microsoft or IBM is all that bad. You're still solving problems, they're just different problems. The claim, I guess, is that they aren't algorithmic problems. But the majority of algorithm-based ICPC problems are combinations or heuristics of already defined algorithms. Ad-hoc problems are where true problem solvers flourish.

This might be better suited for an Ask HN, but he mentions this in his slide on what not to do,<p><i>"Avoid self-destructive behavior/career-limiting moves"</i><p>In the cautionary tales he gives, I really don't see this, except for the missing going to grad school. What is a career-limiting move, and how would I be able to both identify one and maneuver around it?

I'm not sure if his cautionary tales are that discouraging. That said, I work at a company at which about half of us are yellow+ TopCoders, IOI finalists, ICPC finalists, or something of that nature, so I'm surrounded by people who are very similar to his cautionary tales.

&#62; "the best student I ever taught algorithms to is female."<p>Steve Skiena calling someone his best student is a <i>strong</i> statement - any idea who this is?

I competed then coached the ACM contest at my last university. Out of the really solid competitors I worked with, one is a pretty well-respected Microsoft MVP, consultant, speaker and author. Another founded an open-source company and regularly appeared on tech news sites a couple years ago. I've lost track of a couple others, which tells me that they're probably stuck in line-of-business app hell ("COBOL programs" in the article).<p>Before Top Coder, to me the most famous ACM competitor was Ian Goldberg, who has done some noteworthy things in his career: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Goldberg" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Goldberg</a><p>Programming contests are a fun diversion and a tool to sharpen your skills.