I honestly needed to hear this today, so thank you. I’m at work trying to work out someone else’s uncommented code and have just been staring at it mumbling to myself. I’m new to the position so I’m anxious my new coworkers will think I’m just dicking around… This is the validation I needed. Thanks everyone!
Say out loud to yourself, “What the hell is this?” or, “Why did they do it this way?” once in a while. Everyone around will think you know exactly what you’re doing.
I don’t know your circumstances, but it is usually OK to just ask. Especially if the original author is around. Don’t do it all the time and you’ll be OK. Even can come with positive image out of it, if you ask the right questions.
Other than that, I found that the current llms like ChatGPT (and perhaps Claude) are very good at explaining code, most of the time, for some languages ;)
Hey, thanks for your concern. I’m asking tons of questions, don’t worry. Unfortunately the last 3 keepers of this code are no longer around to ask, thus the staring at code.
And this is why I moved to using white boards.
I wish I understood how to use them. I have half written scraps of paper and random text in random text files. Notebooks are about the best I can do. I can’t write very well on a vertical board. It is really really uncomfortable and I end up obsessing on how bad it looks over solving the problem. Sometimes drawing on my iPad instead works, but that is another place to look for things.
I do like using Markdown + Mermaid. Obsidian is a nice little note taking app once I got it configured. It just takes me forever.
They have smaller white boards you can just prop up at a nice angle on your desk. These are what I use. Bigger ones that have to hang are for scheduling because I also black hole anything more than a week away. Also the white board is just off loading my thoughts so people can’t interrupt me so badly. I still use note taking apps for tracking completed thoughts or things I have to come back to.
What I do is I read over something, take a nap, and then read it over again. If I don’t get it after that I’ll ask someone for help.
100%. Really, just go do something other than what you’ve been focusing on, then come back to it. When I was coding, I would go take a walk when I’d get stuck. 9 times out of ten the answer would pop into my head when I’d stepped away. A few times I even dreamed of the answer while sleeping.
The unconscious mind processes what you were doing during REM sleep, so it’s really efficient way of getting things done.
Taking a break helps a lot. I like to multitask for this reason and to not feel like wasting time. Also, important to remember to eat. There’s an obvious drop in my clarity of mind right before lunch.
First taking a nap and only then asking for help. I like this approach.
My math teacher in high school always said “math is 90% looking” and if you didn’t get the task directly: “look again” … Funny part is, that actually worked for most of the class xD
I used to work in an office with 4 other developers. It was a common occurrence to have the lights go off in the room, for energy saving.
Simone would wave their arm, then go back to staring.
God bless Simone
I work in a dedicated room in my house (remote developer). During the day I don’t really need to turn the lights on—windows and a skylight. The sun sets and sometimes I really just don’t notice. My wife will come in at some point and scold me for working in the dark, claiming it’s bad for my eyes (as if staring at a screen all day isn’t already).
I actually rather enjoy that rather not-subtle marker of the passage of time and how entrancing “the zone” can be such that I fail to even notice that.
I’ve often been accused of looking angry when I’m thinking about a problem. Of course I’m angry! How dare the solution allude me! 😡
Allude what to you?
Probably alluding to the fact that it’s eluding them 🤷
Maybe “aluding” is because the solution is both eluding and alluring at the same time, so one keeps following its syren song but when you get to where you think the solution is, it’s not there.
Certainly it matches the feeling I got with some of the development problems I’ve faced.
I refer to the process as “loading” and it helps so much when coding, debugging or even playing puzzle games
Tbh a good builder/technician will do this too when faced with a complicated fix
Same thing; every action has an opposite reaction, whether it’s code or physical engineering
I’m a carpenter, I do high end stuff for rich people with really expensive pieces of wood. I’ll stare as much as I need to on the issues I have or even before starting anything. Need to think about every way it could go wrong.
How do you prepare for “world ends in nuclear holocaust?” Seems a bit difficult to account for.
Cup of tea
If I intimidate it by staring at it long enough, it’ll work eventually.
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Sometimes the first, then eventually the second when you realize you did it but forgot you did it.
“Ok fine, I’m going to see who committed this atrocity,
git blame, oh crap.”
Wait until she walks in on him explaining the problem out loud to a rubber duck.
Sounds like Feynman’s algorithm.
- Write down the problem
- Think about it really hard
- Write down the solution
Look IDK about math, but I know about programming: “stare at it” is bad advice. Give it a minute or two, then get up and go for a walk or go to bed. Let your subconscious stare at it instead; it’s actually better at this stuff than you are.
If I’m ever staring at math, I’m absolutely not processing visual information while doing so. It’s more that like, I’m staring off into space and thinking and “math on a whiteboard” just happens to be the last thing I was looking at and my face is still pointed that way
Programmers do that a lot? I always just start trying stuff in the command line until it works. It’s in research though, so maybe different from what is typical developer stuff?
“Fuck it, let’s try [blank]” is absolutely a valid debugging mechanism. Whether you get the same problems or fascinating new problems - you learned something about what’s wrong.
Now go take a walk and let your brain figure out what it means.
Yes! I got a new error!
The most valid learning/troubleshooting technique I’ve found is to push every button until something new happens. Seems to piss everyone else off tho
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