I never, in all the years of participating in AoC did take a look at the global leaderboard.

Even before LLMs I knew it was filled with with results faster then you can blink.

So some of us, from gut feeling the vast majority, it was always just for fun. Usually I spent at least until March to finish as much as I did in every year.

I stopped staying up until midnight for the new problem set to be released and instead would do them in the afternoon. Even though I could compare my time to the leaderboard, simply not having the possibility of being on the board removed most of the comparison anxiety.

Oh, i’m quite sure it does. In fact, it’s a central thing in so much of psychology. The only difference is how you get there. Some people can just ignore and others take more effort.

Lots of people play games while ignoring the achievements.

Many people do - well, did - AoC while ignoring the leaderboard.