Like any drug, I had a reason - I wanted to break into FAANG and get paid 3x my salary.

I got my first hit after completing a Leetcode Hard - It took me over 6 hours to do - on a Saturday morning while visiting my Grandmother's house. But damn was I proud.

My second hit was when I reached a 30 day streak. A successful friend - who was launching a startup at the time - gave a heartfelt congratulations, and told me to go for 60.

And while I'm glad I did it, this has gone on too long. There's too many reasons not to continue any longer:

• Validation: Neither myself nor anyone else cares about my streak anymore. I would like to say "it only matters if I care", but reality hits different.
• What I gave up: I used to spend significant amounts of time contributing to Open Source. This stopped when I started Leetcoding
• Time: Leetcode takes time. You can't multitask it when you're hanging out with friends, and there's a feeling of anxiety when you haven't solved the daily problem yet
• Need: I don't need to get into FAANG anymore. I'm already here. I don't plan on going back into Big Tech once I leave, and if I ever do, I can easily learn Leetcode again.
• Cheat: During a trip to Yosemite, twice I used a "Streak Freeze"; but once you corrupt it a little, the value loses a lot.

In 2 days I will be at a 1234 streak. That will be my last day doing Leetcode for a very long time.

https://leetcode.com/u/dginovker/