What to Do When You're Stuck in Development

When I get stuck in development, my thinking sometimes freezes and I end up repeating the same thing over and over. To deal with that, I'm writing down what to do when I get stuck.

Thinking

• Ask yourself "why am I stuck?"
• Ask yourself "where is the root cause of the problem?"
• List out "what I know so far"
• List out "what I don't know yet"
• Think about "how can I solve this problem?"

Development techniques

• Write unit tests for the happy path
  • Once "the unit tests pass = it works", it becomes easier to make incremental progress
• Use a debugger
• Compare the diff between code that works and code that doesn't
• Explain out loud everything the code you're writing does
  • Wherever your understanding is fuzzy, there's likely a bug or a missing piece of implementation
  • This is so-called rubber duck debugging

Communication

• Ask your teammates for help
• Dump your thoughts into your Slack times channel

Step away from your desk

• Take a break
• Go for a walk
• Take a shower

I'm sure there are many other approaches. If you have a favorite one, let me know.