Coping With “Getting Stuck” February 9th, 2023
Throughout my four years of classes at OSU (averaging one class per quarter) and my two years in software development, there have been many times that I have gotten “stuck” on a project. Sometimes they have been simple issues where due to inexperience, I can’t come up with how to proceed with one aspect of a project. Other times they are more complex issues that I have encountered a “hard stuck”, where I could not make progress on any part of the project until I solved a problem.
In the first instance where I would be stuck on one aspect of a project, I tend to swap to a different aspect of the same project to get my mind off of the issue at hand. This tends to calm me down, so I don’t get as stressed out about it. Sometimes I indirectly solve these problems in my sleep or have an ah ha moment just as I am waking up in the morning.
This type of sleep problem solving reminds me of something I heard about Albert Einstein. When he would encounter a problem where he had a lot of thinking to do on a subject, he would take a nap in the middle of the day. In his hand he would hold ball bearings with his arm hanging down to his side while sitting in his chair. When he would start drifting into deep sleep, his hand would relax and drop the ball bearings. The thud of the ball bearings hitting the floor would wake him. He would then write down thoughts that came to him during his nap. Getting enough sleep at night that you get into deep sleep definitely has helped me many many times to solve complex problems that I would otherwise have been stuck on grinding away at night.
The other instance of being stuck on an entire project, while rare can be very stressful. In one of my earliest semesters at OSU I because paralyzingly stuck on an issue that took me right up to the wire of a hard deadline. This was a 2 week project, where I was hard stuck for about three days with only four days left in the project. In those three days I was in a panic. I started to lose sleep over, and I really started to lose faith in myself completing this post-bacc program. At the time I felt like I had to solve it 100% alone or I wasn’t good enough. I did end up getting through this specific instance of being hard stuck, but it affected my mental state for a while.
If I were to give advice to my former self I would say. “Don’t be so stubborn and ask for help when necessary. Asking questions doesn’t mean you are dumb. No one person has all the answers 100% of the time. A lot of Software Engineering is researching and learning how to solve problems. Start on projects right when they are given, and don’t procrastinate.”
