When you discover that finding the top K frequent elements can be done in O(n) time using bucket sort or quickselect, and suddenly you're looking down on everyone still using heaps like it's 2010. The party guy in the corner just learned about the O(n log n) heap solution and thinks he's clever, while you're out here flexing your knowledge of linear time algorithms like you just unlocked a secret level in LeetCode. For context: Most people solve this problem with a min-heap (priority queue), which gives O(n log k) complexity. But the galaxy brain move is using bucket sort since frequencies are bounded by n, giving you that sweet O(n) linear time. It's the difference between being invited to the party and owning the party.