Unpopular answer alert:
Doing leetcode like problems on a semi-regular basis helps me a lot.
Ask HN: What has made you a better problem solver in software engineering?
11–20 of 68 posts
Re: Ask HN: What has made you a better problem solver in software engineering?
#12Things got a lot better for me when I realized almost nobody gets to the best solution on the first try. Cobble together an ugly and hacky solution that you can confirm solves the problem, then iterate and iterate until you clean it up well enough to ship it.
Or just ship it, and write a ticket to clean things up 'later'.
Re: Ask HN: What has made you a better problem solver in software engineering?
#13Compiling gentoo when I was a kid put me on the right path to learn to solve problems
Re: Ask HN: What has made you a better problem solver in software engineering?
#14Learn a little bayesian decision theory. Not because you need it for the solution of your problem, but because of what it tells you about the process of doing so.
I've got a tongue-in-cheek presentation entitled 'How to seem a Genius at Debugging with this 1 Weird Trick' based on decision theory. One day I must write it up properly as a blog post.
Re: Ask HN: What has made you a better problem solver in software engineering?
#15Unpopular answer alert: Doing leetcode like problems on a semi-regular basis helps me a lot.
Just curious, in what way? Does your job require you solving problems like leetcode every some time?
Re: Ask HN: What has made you a better problem solver in software engineering?
#16A very short read called “Are your lights on?” which is about the art of “problem identification.”
That and just reading. Honestly. Read anything.
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Your-Lights-Gerald-Weinberg-ebook...
Re: Ask HN: What has made you a better problem solver in software engineering?
#17Teaching beginners, correcting their mistakes and seeing all the weird, out of the box ways how they attempt to solve common problems, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
Also, working on legacy systems, and seeing why and how the theoretical drawbacks of some approaches manifest in practice, and other theoretically discussed risks really don't.
Re: Ask HN: What has made you a better problem solver in software engineering?
#18Unpopular answer alert: Doing leetcode like problems on a semi-regular basis helps me a lot.
definitely not the answer I wanted to hear. I find them extremely boring, even though I understand their benefit
Re: Ask HN: What has made you a better problem solver in software engineering?
#19Somebody once told me "the arrows are more important than the boxes".
It made me realize that focusing on the flows of data between systems resulted in better overall designs. You can always swap out the contents of a box later on.
Re: Ask HN: What has made you a better problem solver in software engineering?
#20Talking through the problem out loud. Ideally with someone else who knows what you're on about, but anyone willing to listen will do.
If you can't find a listener just find a place where you can talk to yourself quietly.
Basically offer up a detailed commentary of the problem and what you have tried so far. The slow, methodical pacing of actually speaking out loud, as opposed to mile-a-minute thinking in my head seems to help my brain spot problems and come up with solutions.