As with life, there are many obstacles and stresses that we as humans face on a daily basis. As we deal with these obstacles, we learn how to manage this stress, overcome it, as well as how to tackle this stress if we ever come across it again. In total, through these obstacles we grow as a person. However in this blog post, I will be talking about the stresses that come with being a computer science student/ software engineer and how I learned how to deal with those stresses to grow as a developer.
As a computer science student/ software engineer, there are a lot of problems that we face on a regular basis. These problems range from our code not working, not being able to find the problem, minor bugs, and even when everything should work it isn’t working. These issues that we face can be frustrating as often times we cannot find the source of the problem and often it becomes the norm to at least run into one problem a day. Even more so sometimes, as sometimes the solution to the problem can be as simple as refreshing the page, leaving an extra comma, or even not knowing the concept enough to solve the problem. Which all in all, can contribute to a frustrating experience for many coders. I myself have been there as well. When I first started my journey in coding, I remember running into countless of problems and started feeling stressed that I wasn’t good enough, wondering why I kept forgetting certain things or why I never thought of xyz. I quickly realized though that this was not a great approach and overall not a good way that I was handling my stress. So I decided to look into better ways of tackling problems and knowing when to take breaks to manage my stress.
The first thing I realized was that running into problems and bugs was a normal part of coding, and instead of being stressed/frustrated, I should be able to calmly approach this problem step by step. Learning to not take it personally but rather as a new opportunity to learn something new was the biggest lesson I learned. My method for approaching this was that if I ran into an error, I would first try to read the error message and figure out what the error message was saying. I would then scroll up to the very top of my code file and go line by line to figure out where the issue was. If I still didn’t know where the error was, I would double check the lines where the error is starting at and look up online what the error means. Usually at this point, for the most part this is where I usually am able to realize what the error is and how to fix it. This usually turns out to be a great learning experience as I learn something new about the syntax & functionality. In addition, as I run into more errors I start to familiarize myself with these errors. Being familiar with these errors makes it so that when I see this error again, I know right where to go and how to fix this.
However there are times, there are times where the error persists. In these cases, I start going back to all of my code files to check line by line if there are any issues. I make sure to double check that the functions are all working and that are no overriding/overlaps happening. Sometimes I am able to pinpoint where the error is this way, as the terminal does not give me a specific error. If this problem still is there, I use the rubber-ducking method where I talk to myself/my dog explaining what I was doing, where the error is, and what I’m trying to accomplish. Most times I also find that I am able to fix the error this way as talking to someone walking them through helps. My dog doesn’t really listen to me fully, but I like to pretend she is haha. Unfortunately even then there are also times that I come across an error that I really can’t find or fix. In these situations, I realize it is important for me to take a step back and take a quick break. I find that continuing to debug for hours is not a healthy approach. Often times coming back with a clear mindset helps a lot. During my breaks, I step out to walk my dog, do chores, or play quick game to destress. In other cases, I think it’s important to realize when you need to ask for help in comparison to working on it endlessly on your own. If I find that I am working for too long on this one issue, I reach out for help. Often times getting someone to take a look at your code, gives you the opportunity to get a fresh new outlook, more tips, and often a great learning/bonding experience. Whenever I reached out for help, I always learned something new as the person often has a different approach which I find insightful. In addition, it’s always fun to debug with someone else!
To sum it all up, if anyone finds themselves getting stressed while coding, I highly suggest taking a different approach. The method that worked best for me was to not take it personally and approach it as a learning experience through walking yourself through the code step by steps. Knowing when to take breaks and reach out for help also plays a huge role in managing stress as well as growing as a developer. The best method that works personally is to talk it through to your dog of course! Learning how to tackle on stress & problems while coding really turned me into a better developer, team player, as well as approaching problems in life with a calm perspective.
