Vinnie’s Next Day Syndrome

N.D.S.

I know all of you coders have been there before: Something in a project you’re working on, that oh-so-important project that everyone is betting the farm on you to complete, breaks. You stare for hours at the code, trying everything you can to get it functional again. Eight o’clock passes and you’re still at work trying to get this thing operational again. In desperation, you give up, knowing that anything you do after 12 hours is only going to do harm. You come in the next day, and ten minutes later you’ve figured it out. I call this the Next Day Syndrome.

I’ve experienced this more than you know. One nights sleep or a break gives one a fresh perspective.

Problems require solutions. It’s not the solution that’s important but how to get to the solution. In most cases I know what the solution is, but how to get it working?

It’s the approach. A hammer can’t do a tweezers job, just as tweezers can’t do a hammer’s job.

When searching for a solution we start in a direction, as we travel this direction we try many different approaches hoping the end will be our triumphant. In our haste to find the solution we never question if our direction is correct. We continue this direction, even if it’s wrong. Our mind is made up.

More correctly our assumptions are wrong. The definition of an assumption is what we believe (assume) to be true. We base our future actions off these beliefs. If these beliefs are false so are all our future actions.

After a good night’s sleep or a break we re-approach our problem with a fresh mind revalidating our assumptions.