Getting Unstuck: Strategies For Solving Difficult Problems
summary
Claim: getting stuck is the job and can be turned into a repeatable skill. Concrete tactics include writing the bug down, messaging the slackbot or rubber ducking, pairing and handing over the keyboard, deleting code iteratively or using git bisect to binary‑search commits, and writing unit and integration tests to shrink the surface area. Incubation strategies are naps, showers or exercise; hardening tactics are a Trello wall of motivation, a daily journal, and regular pairing (often three hours a day).
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chapters (28)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:18CLOUD Pain Free Rails 66 Deployments
- 1:16ART SY
- 4:12SURVEY TIME!
- 6:05GETTING STUCK ISN'T A REFLECTION OF YOUR SKILL LEVEL
- 6:18GETTING STUCK IS THE JOB.
- 6:38YOUR JOB IS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
- 6:55SOLVING PROBLEMS TAKES TIME
- 7:07EXPLAIN THE PROBLEM
- 8:42TALK TO A PERSON
- 11:52CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS
- 15:36ISOLATE THE PROBLEM
- 16:24REMOVE CODE
- 17:57git bisect
- 19:12BUILD A PROOF OF CONCEPT
- 24:02ESCAPE THE PROBLEM
- 24:49PHYSICAL EXERCISE
- 26:47WHEN YOU COME BACK TO THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM, YOU HAVE TO RE-LEARN IT A BIT
- 27:09YOUR BRAIN MIGHT COME UP WITH THE ANSWER WHILE THINKING ABOUT OTHER THINGS
- 27:24ANALOGICAL PROBLEM SOLVING
- 28:08INCUBATION
- 32:17HARDEN YOURSELF
- 32:35LEARN NEW WAYS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
- 33:16WALL OF MOTIVATION
- 35:31MEDITATION
- 35:59TALK ABOUT YOUR STRUGGLES
- 36:21CONDITION YOURSELF
- 37:152. ISOLATE: BREAK PROBLEMS DOWN
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