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Developer's block

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Re: Developer's block

#71

Post by jbeninger »

patrick451 wrote: post #59
Martin_Silenus wrote: post #17

Sleep. Best side task for your brain. How many times has this happened to me? You struggle with a feature or a bug, you think about it, you weigh the pros and cons for hours... because you don't want to start something that will set you back. You're tired, but you don't want to go to sleep until you've at least made a decision for tomorrow. Go to sleep. Now. Then you wake up knowing immediately what to do. You hardly…

What I have noticed is that often, what sleep or rest gives me isn't so much a new insight but just the gumption to make a decision or grind through what I know needs to be done.

That is a great insight. Often the thought that breaks through developer block for me is " fine, I guess I can't do it that way"

Re: Developer's block

#72

Post by MarkSweep »

tomrod wrote: post #37

Of all the uses of LLMs, this is the most useful to me. Being able to force a minor draft that I can begin tweaking to overcome dev or writers block.

I agree. I recently had a side project that had wanted to do for a while, but never could get past the developer's block on. Using a LLM was a great way to overcome this and get a MVP that I could start evolving.

https://www.awise.us/2025/07/27/source-generator.html

Re: Developer's block

#73

Post by twodave »

I feel like if you keep your effort problem-oriented you can avoid a lot of the stalling that comes from not being confident about things. E.g. saying, “This code sucks, but it solves the problem in a way that doesn’t paint me into a corner,” is a perfectly fine V1 solution. Understanding where your contracts are located and making those as good as you can with the information you have is important enough to slow down for. But once you have those then most other things can evolve freely.

Re: Developer's block

#75

Post by armchairhacker »

Ironically, I overcome developer's block on new features with AI. I ask Claude Code to implement the feature, figuring out some details but leaving others for Claude to decide.

"Ironically" because I usually rewrite almost everything it generates (sans the file and class names, sometimes). But when I describe the idea enough to give Claude some chance of implementing it, I refine it and start planning the high-level implementation. Then the file of LLM slop, even though I have to rewrite most of it, is much less overwhelming than a blank file.

Re: Developer's block

#76

Post by mikepurvis »

polishdude20 wrote: post #70
mikepurvis wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good exercise also contributes to good sleep. I sleep like a log after a good bike ride or an evening out swing dancing, but if all I did was sit at my desk all day then it’s a lot more likely I’ll be tossing and turning or doom scrolling into the wee hours.

Just had a very tiring long run yesterday. Spent the night still scrolling haha.

Ha, well ya can’t win em all I guess :)

Re: Developer's block

#78

Post by convolvatron »

chrisweekly wrote: post #55
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #16

> Release early, release often I’m big on this. I find it efficacious to have an integrated product going as soon as possible, even if it’s a field of stubs. It’s my experience that I almost never know what the end product will look like, no matter how much upfront planning time I devote, so being able to test and iterate the whole system, as soon as possible, is pretty vital. It’s also one reason that I like to use…

Your linked post about test harnesses is outstanding; thanks for sharing!

I agree. the only point that I didn't see there is that test harnesses radically improve reproducibility. no, no change directories, set that environment variable, touch that config file, or do any other manual system state manipulation when running your tests.

put it all in the harness. same run every time, modulo races, and a lot less tripping over magic you can't always remember or show to someone else.

Re: Developer's block

#79

Post by lilerjee »

Good article, thank you!

I like extreme cycling, and it helped me solved many problems about development.

When I'm riding my bike and listening to music, especially when freely imagining and designing my product in my mind, I am very relax. Many aspects of my products were designed while I was riding.

Cycling is a great form of exercise. It not only helps you strengthen your body, enjoy the scenery, relax your mind, relieve stress, and adjust yourself, but it can also spark plenty of inspiration. If you’re under heavy pressure or working on a product, I highly recommend you go cycling regularly.

Re: Developer's block

#80

Post by arcanemachiner »

oldmandev wrote: post #30
Martin_Silenus wrote: post #17

Sleep. Best side task for your brain. How many times has this happened to me? You struggle with a feature or a bug, you think about it, you weigh the pros and cons for hours... because you don't want to start something that will set you back. You're tired, but you don't want to go to sleep until you've at least made a decision for tomorrow. Go to sleep. Now. Then you wake up knowing immediately what to do. You hardly…

I agree that sleep and exercise are key. Some have pain and/or insomnia waking them up at night with the inability to get back to sleep quickly or at all, and some have pain/injuries that make exercise less fun. Telling us to sleep and exercise is like telling homeless and starving people to get off the streets, find a job, eat a good dinner, and buy a house. It sounds nice, and we’ll do our best, but the world you l…

When people are giving generic advice, they're obviously not talking about corner cases.

Don't be such a victim. Not everyone is going to think of your exact situation in every sentence they write.

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