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1/ Exactly. Human psychology is so conditioned that you compete in a contest only upto the point where you see the things doable, once it goes out of your perceived reach, it suddenly cools down because of performance anxiety

2/ and then even if you remain in the contest, you certainly do not aim for winning it, but rather for fun, and eventually you end up forming the bottom base. No obsession is actually good.

what’s your point?

Anything more than 500 threads will create performance anxiety, that's my point. But it's equally important to know from which bracket it is coming, if it comes from the lower bracket of the leaderboard it's a healthy sign.

that’s the point. It is coming from the challengers and that is good.