1% Better Every Day - The Only Promise That Paid | Scaler Academy Review
Never make promises you can't keep.
That sounds like a simple rule but it gets harder when the promise is to yourself. A new course can look manageable on the first day. A schedule can look perfectly reasonable on your notepad. Then you have to sit down and actually do it.
I had been away from studying for a while when I joined Scaler. The first few weeks meant getting back into lectures, assignments and homework, and spending a lot of time with questions I could not solve. Some of them took an entire day.
Scaler had a mantra for the whole thing: 1% better every day.
But what does it mean? I’ll answer it, but let me take you through my journey first.
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When you join Scaler, you are allotted a batch along with other members and a time slot for your lectures. For me, the beginning was tough because it had been a while since I had jumped into the ring.
Then I met the Pure Daredevils.
These people seemed to be there purely for the fun of it, to test the waters and, somehow, make you realise that you know nothing.
All jokes apart, being around people like that was kind of useful. You get to see the kind of people you are studying with, and energy always flows from higher potential to lower potential. So it was a win for me.
– Yeah, that is what I used to tell myself.
The lectures were very thorough, and you could ask as many questions as you wanted. Then came the assignments and homework.
If you fell into my category, you could find yourself banging your head against one question for an entire day.
That was the level of the questions.
You could spend hours trying to understand what was being asked, work through one approach, realise it wasn't working and start again. If you were still unable to solve or understand the question or the solution, there were people around to help.
That was how the early days went.
When One Solved Question Became 10-12
Then I got the thrill of solving a question on my own.
It was addiction time! No, seriously.
Once you get that feeling, you want it again. I started chasing that satisfaction and ended up solving 10-12 questions a day through multiple platforms so that I have consistency in coding.
That was a very different feeling from spending an entire day on one question.
The bigger change was in the way I started looking at problems.
You begin to recognise patterns. You see a question and start figuring out what kind of problem it is. You can think of different ways to approach it instead of staring at it and wondering where to begin.
Yes, you heard it right - ways. The Muscle Memory you know!
It doesn't mean you know every answer. It means you have seen enough problems for some of them to start figuring out the approach.
That was probably one of the most satisfying parts of the whole thing.
Then the Module Changes
Just when you start feeling confident and good about life again, the module changes.
New topics come up. Some of them may be things you haven't heard of before.
And the cycle repeats.
You have just started getting familiar with one set of topics, and now you have another set waiting for you.
That can be frustrating.
But after a while, the newness itself stops bothering you as much.
Nothing pains you anymore.
New day, new fight.
The module still changes. The topics still change. You still have things you don't know.
You just don't react to that in quite the same way anymore.
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The next part of the Scaler setup was “Home”.
Before you could start applying, you had to clear mock interviews for each module.
I took those mocks very seriously. They gave me feedback on what I needed to improve, and I used it.
That was useful preparation because the actual interviews were not going to wait for me to feel completely ready.
Then came interview after interview.
I was able to clear the coding round for almost all the companies I interviewed with. But there was always something here and there.
They were looking for things I did not have.
Past experience at a company was one gap. Projects were another.
There was no point pretending those gaps did not exist.
So I noted down the reason, worked on what I could and moved on.
And that was it.
No long post-mortem. No sitting around wondering why the interview hadn't worked out.
Note the reason. Improve. Move on.
Eventually, I cracked two interviews and ended up joining Haptik.
A new family and new beginnings.
What 1% Better Every Day Came Down To
And now answering the question. What does this mean?
When you join Scaler, one of the things you hear is 1 percent better every day.
I think it starts with the thing in front of you. One question that needs to be solved. One topic that needs to be understood. One piece of feedback that tells you what you need to work on.
Then you do the next one.
For me, those things eventually changed the way I approached problems. I started recognising patterns just by looking at a question. I could think of different ways to approach the same problem. I even believe that it created a muscle memory of some sorts.
The same happened with mock interviews. I took them seriously, used the feedback to improve and went back for the next one. When an actual interview did not work out, I noted down the reason, improved and moved on.
And then I realized how those small practices together helped me get closer to bigger goals. The curriculum keeps moving, the topics get harder and you have to keep up with it. What starts with getting through the work in front of you eventually becomes the ability to handle more than you could when you started.
So, as I see it, this journey is not a race. It is more like a marathon. You trust the process and do the bare minimum they ask for. Even if you are 75% true in your efforts, you start seeing the changes and the growth.
You don't need to promise yourself that you will do everything at once. Make a promise you can keep, and let the work take you to the next one.
And that brings me back to the title.
Never make promises you can't keep.
You don't have to figure out the whole journey at once. Start with the next step, put in the work, and let the progress build from there.
Check out Scaler Academy and take your first step towards becoming 1% better every day.
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FAQs
Q1. How many hours a day do you need to study at Scaler?
The author's experience changed as he moved through the curriculum. Some questions took him an entire day. Later, he was solving 10-12 questions a day across different platforms. So the starting point can be manageable, but the curriculum will ask more of you as you progress. The 1% idea is about getting into that rhythm and gradually being able to take on more.
