
Ask HN: How long can you code before got stuck and start googling? - jozi9
Is this a good trend? I mean, there&#x27;s too much knowledge to pick up, technologies are changing too fast, and you can find good enough solutions for problems in google, so why bother solving it on your own?<p>I&#x27;m wondering to get into something algorithmic stuff just for kicks to ease my greed for REAL programming :)
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bliti
I used to open books to find answers to my questions. Programming books were a
permanent fixture in my desk. Its difficult to remember everything. I now use
bookmarks for online documentation. How often do I use it? As often as
required.

There is a point with solutions posted online. You still have to document and
write tests. In the end, you might have not come up with the actual solution,
but you still have had to learn how it works in order to test and document it.
It will usually make you refactor it a little bit. Thus ending with your own
solution. Programming is funny.

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seren
You are likely not paid by your company to write lines of code, but rather to
solve problems, and thus create value. Using a standard library rather that
rewriting you own solution is just sound business.

You need to Google a topic before starting anything you are not familiar with.
If you have already started, it is too late!

PS : if you are coding as a hobby this is another matter, do what you want.

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smeyer
I do plenty of googling, but this reminds me of the time I spent one summer
working at a defense laboratory. Many of the coworkers in my group spent most
of their time in zones for doing classified work without access to the
internet, and thus couldn't really google (without leaving to go somewhere
else.) One of them burned a book titled something like "The Python Cookbook"
onto a CD to take into their office in the classified zone and the security
asked them why they were bringing in a cookbook.

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mattgibson
Perhaps a better question: How long do you have to Google before you're not
stuck and can start coding? :)

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junto
Perhaps a better better question: How long do you spend procrastinating on HN
before you can start coding? :)

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krapp
I have HN in one monitor and work in the other so I can do both.

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junto
XKCD for that: [http://xkcd.com/303/](http://xkcd.com/303/) ;-)

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krapp
Now how to make this excuse work when i'm working with PHP and JS....

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BWStearns
If the project is just for shits and giggles and I basically know what I'm
doing I tend to try holding off googling for a while, leads to more source
code reading and allows for accidentally discovering unrelated but helpful
stuff. If it's for an actual project that I'm expected to move on I tend to
google after I try only a few ways (max 10-15 minutes total) around the
problem. Definitely makes side-projects take forever but I feel like it's
productive in the long run.

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pp19dd
Often enough, when I get stuck I realize that plenty of other programmers have
gotten stuck at that point too. And now I wonder if this has a detrimental
effect on the developer community.

By that I mean if a common problem has such a common workaround, then the
workaround becomes accepted as a valid solution, and the original problem
doesn't get resolved. Ever.

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jpetersonmn
Even on problems I already have a solution for, I usually google it to see how
other people are solving that same sort of problem. Often I find that my
solutions may work, but are not that efficient. I have a lot of little code
snippets I've saved for various tasks, etc...

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brickmort
Yep, I'm always googling. No shame in that.

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walterbell
Copy/Paste/Edit is the most widely adopted API :) If someone could improve
copy/paste workflow, it would have a wide impact. E.g. improve search for code
snippets that are similar, or finding other devs who are using similar code
snippets.

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ToshB
Microsoft already did something like this:
[http://codesnippet.research.microsoft.com/](http://codesnippet.research.microsoft.com/)

Stack Overflow and MSDN search embedded in Visual Studio.

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junto
That is so cool. I use Visual Studio every day, and I can't believe I haven't
seen this before!

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mrfusion
Yes, we're moving more and more into what Verner Vinge coined as "software
archeology". Instead of writing you you're finding code that does what you
need.

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arisAlexis
I consider googling part of my programming and not a last resort solution but
actually a workflow.

