How to avoid jumping to a solution when under pressure?
This was closed as "too localized." What does that mean? This question has been up-voted 9 times and is closely related to:
- https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/84829/steps-to-solve-or-approach-towards-a-solution?rq=1 which was migrated from StackOverflow because it was more appropriate on Programmers
- Is thinking out loud during an interview really the best strategy? which has 30 up-votes; 3x the qualification for a "Nice Question" badge.
- It is a more general version of Writing code vs Figuring out the answer to a problem?
What did those three questions do right that my question did wrong? When my question was closed, I tried to correct it so that it would be reopened. I think I even had 4 reopen votes at one point. It felt unfair to me to have my question closed, especially because:
- I am not aware of a more appropriate place to ask such a question
- I don't understand why it was closed
- Why couldn't it be reopened when I corrected it?
Most programmers have to answer questions in interviews at some point. Wikipedia has a small page about Havoc Pennington, and his latest blog post is along similar lines, "Don't Screw up Your Next Presentation." The Google hand-out for interview preparation stresses, "Don't miss a hint if your interviewer is trying to assist you!" (which I interpret as meaning that you have to be flexible about your solution and not get hung up on your first idea).
Actually Not Invented Here (NIH) is a common hang-up among creative technologists. I worked one place where one person's bad idea determined our development direction for the next 5 years. It's not just me.
My question is ultimately about how one aspect of human nature applies to programming. Granted, I fail those CAPCHA Touring tests from time to time, but I am actually human, as are most of the programmers I know. We all have to adapt our humanity to the task of programming at some time or another. Why isn't that relevant to to this site?