[spockz]

One of my favourite experiences coming up as an engineer was working with a very senior engineer right in the beginning. Whenever he had a task or problem, he would start out thinking, maybe doodling a bit on paper, go for a walk, and only then sit down at his computer and start typing. He would type in one go only compiling in the end, and it would work. (Even typos were rare.)

All this to say that it is extremely useful to have the program and the problem space in your head and to be able to reason about it before hand. It makes it clearer what you expect and easier to catch when something unexpected happens.

[econ]

> He would type in one go only compiling in the end, and it would work. (Even typos were rare.)

Then with each year grow more paranoid if there are no bugs or typos.

[dehrmann]

I see some of the value in planning, but experimentation is so cheap, there's also a lot of value in trying it, seeing what works, and learning from it. The main drawback I see from experimentation is failing to understand why something worked.

[hackable_sand]

The cheapest option in all of software development is to develop the program in your head

That includes experimentation.