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Should I fix my broken code myself or ask for help right away?
I was at my desk last Tuesday night, working on a simple Python script to sort some data, and the whole thing crashed because a variable name was wrong. I spent two hours staring at the screen and finally fixed it, but a friend told me I should have asked for help after 30 minutes instead of wasting time. Which approach do you think is better for beginners - struggling through it alone or getting help sooner?
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adam_butler387h ago
Yeah you mentioned "struggling through it alone or getting help sooner"... I think there's a middle ground people skip over. For a beginner, spending 30-45 minutes trying to fix something yourself is fine. That's how you learn what doesn't work and build muscle memory with your debugger. But after that point you're just spinning your wheels and getting frustrated. The real trick is learning to know exactly when you're stuck vs when you're just not trying hard enough. I'd say try for an hour tops, then reach out. That way you get the benefit of struggling a bit without burning out. Plus when someone shows you the fix after you've tried, you remember it way better than if they just told you upfront.
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