Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by LoSboccacc 3359 days ago
A huge time sink is thinking. I just mentally plan the most effective and long term solution before coding the task at hand, so whatever I write doesn't come to bite me later. From the outside, it looks like I'm fiddling. And most of the time, it goes on even when on in office because the mind can't be turned on and off easily it goes on and on ever at home
2 comments
lloeki 3359 days ago
> From the outside, it looks like I'm fiddling.

Indeed, sometimes I'm stuck "watching" something on the screen (it looks like I'm watching a movie) maybe for extended periods of time. Then suddenly I jump and grab a pen and paper, and in a couple of minutes I get everything I've been building up written down, which helps me in solving the last details.

The opposite is true too, sometimes I'm in a bind and can't get myself to work on some task trying to get into flow, and it turns out fiddling like that (opening random terminals, typing useless commands, navigating some code and skimming through some source file) definitely looks like I'm frantically working.

link
olgeorge 3358 days ago
What are you guys coding that makes you think so much? Most of the time I either code or research a particular tech. I rarely have to think about stuff too much...
link
LoSboccacc 3358 days ago
when the codebase is old enough, you need to think about all the dependencies of every component you change when adding features. that's the major drag to me.

also, browser compatibility, that also requires load of prep work because of the layers of workaround to get stuff working right.

link
javier2 3358 days ago
I am the same. I'll just fiddle around with boilerplate code or procrastinate off other tasks, but that is only semi-consciously. What I am really doing with like 60% of my focus is trying out different designs/architectures around a problem. This might take a few days until I figure out a design that fits the task, but once I'm satisfied, it's usually only a few hours to code the thing.

Worth noting, this process can be significantly sped up if you have a set of peers (or smarter) people to discuss with.

link