Blog Post #4

How do you work through being “stuck” on a problem?

First I give it my all for an hour or two. Then I take a break and stop thinking about the problem and usually when I get back I have a solution. But in the rare occasion where I’m still stuck, I go to outside resource. Whether that be google, chatgpt or a teammate. But I like to figure it out myself as much as possible, its in the struggle where I tend to learn the most.

How do you approach learning something new, like a new technology?

I’m a visual learner. So I go straight to videos. Usually YouTube or Udemy. I like to follow along and do whatever the videos instructs. Then I go on my own an apply what I’ve learn to a new project or problem.

Do you use chatGPT or other AI tools? In what way?

I 100% use ChatGPT. I use it daily for work and learning to code. As I mentioned above, when I’m absolutely stuck I go to it for answers. I usually ask it to describe what a piece of code those. I don’t copy paste anything it give me though. As I’m only hurting myself if it’s doing all the work.

What are some debugging methods you use. Do they usually work?

I can’t stress enough how valuable console.log() is when I’m debugging my JS/HTML/Express Node.js projects. It’s like a torch, illuminating the state of variables or the path of execution within my code. Despite being simple, this tool provides immediate insights, helping me make sense of my code and efficiently tackle any bugs that arise.

Anything project related. You choose.

This project has been nice. At first I was nervous about my teammates but we’ve made some real progress thus far. They have pulled their weight and are very good developers. Excited to finish and graduate. Almost there!