You ask for help from someone more experienced, and just five minutes later, as they get up from their desk, the solution suddenly comes to you.
You have a bug, you reach out for help, and the moment they look at your screen, the bug disappears. It’s like calling a plumber and the leak stops on its own.
I recently had two moments like this.
I needed to merge two potentially large files. My solution was to load everything into memory and merge it, which fit the service level agreement, but I knew streaming and random access files were better. I submitted it, and an hour later, I figured out the optimized solution.
While developing a store page, I hit a wall and struggled to design it. I asked for help and hired someone, and the next day, I suddenly knew exactly how I wanted it to look.
@Asa
When you work on a problem, you can get tunnel vision. Taking a step back, like taking a break, helps you see things from a different perspective.
So when you ‘give up’, you’re actually stepping out of the problem and can see it in a new light.
I’ve seen this happen in my role as a senior. I’ve been on team calls where they only say, ‘It doesn’t matter now, I think I’ve got it.’
I usually tell my team to spend an hour trying to figure things out on their own. If they can’t solve it, then they come to me. I rarely get escalations now, maybe once a month. I prefer that my developers learn to troubleshoot and problem-solve instead of rushing to me at the first sign of a problem.
Web development, whether it’s design or coding, is definitely a creative process, and no one can operate at peak productivity all the time. Knowing when to take a break and step away from your work is a vital skill.
I’ve been programming for about 30 years, and I still have times when I think a certain piece of code is cursed because the issue I’m facing seems so strange (thanks a lot, Node!). But stepping away and coming back later usually resolves the issue. Some days I just can’t get into a creative mindset, and on those days, I focus on things like documentation or fixing bugs instead of writing code.
I can’t count how many times I’ve spent all day stuck on a tough problem, only to realize the answer the next morning while enjoying my tea.
Stevie said:
You hired someone? Can you explain more about how that worked out?
I reached out to friends of friends who do web design, got two quotes, and accepted one. He’s coming tomorrow. I’ll pay him for his time, and I need to find something for him to work on so I don’t look like a flake.