Here are a few lines about programming, from my experience as a programmer for the last six years, that I think will be useful for other programmers or potential programmers.
“Sometimes you need to unfocus to see clearly”
Sometimes you’re buried deep down in a big mess of code, configuration files, logs, programs inputs/outputs that you just can’t see something really simple. When that happens (and it will happen) you need to ‘unfocus’, maybe even take a little break, go away and think of something else. Don’t worry, you’ll be thinking about it in the back of your mind. When you come back, look at the pieces again and solve it. 80% of the times you will realize that the solution was something really stupid that you weren’t seeing.
“There are no unsolvable problems, only problems poorly defined”
This is a quote interpretation (from Einstein, I think), although it sounds so much better in Spanish: “No hay problemas sin solución, sino problemas mal planteados”
Anyway, we always run into problems when programming. If you don’t run into problems, you aren’t doing anything that matters or you’re a perfect genius! Every time we try to solve problems with what we know. When we can’t solve it, we have to go the extra mile. Then, we learn more and more to understand the problem. We study the problem, we focus on the details, we try to find patterns, we study the technology, we search the Internet, we ask other people. Once we get it, we are in the position to solve the problem or re-define it.
It’s very simple, I love solving problem although sometimes it’s frustrating. But the knowledge you become is a great reward. I’m happy to say that I have never ran into a problem I couldn’t solve (talking about programming)
“Think different”
I picked this quote probably because I love Mac (although I’m not a fanatic). Always think of the different alternatives when approaching a solution. Sometimes you can avoid problems, sometimes you need to deal with them. When you need to deal with them, you can go the way you know, you can learn something new, you can do it better, you can take 1 hour, 1 week or 1 month (for example)
Consider how much time you have, if the problem deserves 1 week (or 1 month!) of your time and then do it. Most likely, you will pick the 1 hour solution. But always, for goodness sake, always think that you will be the one maintaining the solution you create.
