Thinking and learning
You can save yourself hours of rewriting and debugging if you spend a few extra minutes thinking about a solution––and thinking it all the way through––before you implement it.
It applies to software development, design, illustration, analysis, marketing, and accounting. — in fact, any kind of work.
It can be tempting to think that thinking isn’t productive and that it is a waste of time because you pressurized by a deadline or can’t see tangible results from it.
If you feel this way, sometimes it helps to have a notebook that you write your thoughts in as you are thinking about solutions to your problem, giving you a physical artifact of your thinking. Physically writing our thoughts with pen and paper helps us think through and process complex information.
And it can give you something to fall back on when you wonder why you did something a certain way and can’t remember the thought process that got you there.
The most effective people will value time spent thinking before implementing. Don’t overthink, though! Time box yourself if you must. We are not looking for perfection. We are looking for a good enough to start. Perfection can lead to procrastination. And that’s a different topic altogether.
A well thought through solution is easier to implement… It’s less time spent on the actual task, less rework, and less frustration = enjoyment.
Yes, enjoyment. When last did you enjoy doing a task? What made it enjoyable?
In the context of software development…
The value of a software developer today is not just the ability to write code but to communicate and translate the requirements of the business or customer into the technical solution. A skill often overlooked yet plays a crucial role. A skill that is well worth learning or investing time to learn from those who have it.
