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Problem-solving techniques to avoid yelling at your computer

Damian Demasi on April 12, 2022

I have been facing some tough code monsters at work lately. I guess I'm out of shape and my sword isn't sharp enough, because I find myself struggl...

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Caleb Anthony • Apr 13 '22

I think this type of problem-solving is where TDD really shines. It gives you a space to write your ideal code and how you would prefer things work. Then you get to go out into your application and make that code a reality with the helpful guiderails of your test.

Damian Demasi • Apr 13 '22

Interesting take. Thanks for sharing it!

Aleksandar Kostadinov • Apr 20 '22 • Edited

I think yelling at computer is a mindset. No rules can help you unless you stop expecting things to work as expected. Problem solving is another point.

Damian Demasi • Apr 21 '22

I think the problem is not about the expectation of things working as planned, but our reaction to the moment in which they don't. We shouldn't feel angry, upset, or disappointed. Instead, we should remind that this is a process, and failure is just part of the process.

TechMan09 • Apr 20 '22

Nice article! But what if we love throwing words at our computers???

Damian Demasi • Apr 21 '22

Go for it! 😅

Ebrahim Hoseiny Fadae • Aug 3 '22

Interesting subject! Thanks for sharing.

Kubat Aiupov • Apr 26 '22

Awesome Article. Damian thank you.

Damian Demasi • Apr 28 '22

I'm glad you enjoy it!

justmedev • Apr 13 '22

The article by itself isn't bad, the example is.
You took an example and solved it by slowly reducing it into multiple smaller steps. This, by itself is fine. But you managed to end up with a less readable and over engineered example.

You could simply do:

const rows = 5;
let out = '';
for (let i = 0; i < rows; i++) {
  out += `${'#'.repeat(rows - i)}\n`;
}

console.log(out);

Damian Demasi • Apr 13 '22 • Edited

That's a great improvement over the final code! 👍

I think the example's objective is to demonstrate the reasoning behind the solution of a problem, and not the most efficient way of writing code. The example is also not using any other method apart from the for loop and the console.log() method. In your case, the inner for loop gets replaced by the repeat method, which adds an extra step of complexity and deviates from the initial objective of the example.

I think your solution could be presented as an extra step in the problem resolution: "improve and make the solution more efficient".