[Fattestmoron]

I actually like puzzles where I see that it involves analytical thinking, or creativity. Open-ended stuff where I am allowed to let my mind take over and not worry about a time limit or some artificial constraints.

I also find it unbearable to "solve" something I see the solution to, or can describe how to solve it. In fact, if I see the solution, I find myself unable to go through the steps to actually do it, especially if there is a time constraint involved.

The trick you have described was my way to do the problems in my spare time back when I hadn't seen them before, but the whole problem is that leetcode problems are designed for an incredibly narrow range of solutions.

Analytical solutions that have poor worst case run times, but incredibly good average case run times are not allowed and a lot of mathematical approaches involving matrices and exploiting vectorization aren't allowed either.

Leetcode-style problems force you to put your mind in a very narrow box and I simply can't do that. I've always had a very great need of orthogonalization in how I think and operate; i.e. if something doesn't stimulate me enough, I need another concurrent activity that is completely different to keep me motivated.