Hi guys, well… I just wanted to ask you guys if it is normal that after being trying for more than 6 hours the exercise Stand in Line and getting hinks (it was the first exercise I’ve got a hink in JS) I could not keep anymore and I had to see the answer. Even though I tried to research as much as information possible about that exercise, plus re-doing the exercises that it was about(.shift and .push) and I could not see the path.
Then when I saw the exercise resolve everything in my head made sense and I understood it.
But is it normal? Like I don’t know… my logic problem solving skills could not find out the answer and I tried but I could not kept anymore otherwise I was not going to progress in the JS course.
Is it normal.
Is it normal to be stuck. Yes.
Is it normal to try for 6 hours or more? Yes.
Is it normal to want to look at a solution when you can’t think of your own. Yes.
Is it a good idea to look at the solutions before coming up with your own. Nope.
(But you didn’t ask that, so that comment is just there in case you wanted to discuss this more).
Getting stuck is totally normal - programming is hard!
Reading code and writing code are really different skills though. Both skills are important, but reading code doesn’t help you write code, and vice versa. Instead of reading the answer, I’d ask for help. Save reading the answer for when your code works. That way you can practice both skills.
Yes hbar1st, I didn’t ask the question, that’s right. I just thought that It was enough after yesterday when I went to sleep at 3am I could not even sleep very well as I was thinking about the exercise… then today when I wake I said okay new day, new “fresh mind” and I went for it after having a coffee and still another 4 hours. (probably was more than 6 hours in total)
So I decided to give up and see the answer, then understand properly the reason why and I understood it.
But yeah, next time I will ask the question in the forum so that the people like you who are more advance can lead me to turn the bulb in my head!
So you mean that next time should I ask before in the forum right? I just tried to figure it out by myself but yeah I think I should have asked before and I could have saved time. Time is gold.
Maybe anyone can tell an avarage on how many hours should we stuck with an exercise?
@hbar1st said that is normal to try for more than 6 hours so I am a bit confuse
In professional life, you may not find solutions to your coding problems online. You may even be expressly prohibited from doing so due to copyright issues. (If my business is selling proprietary software and I use someone’s online code within my software, then the person who wrote the solution is entitled to profit also from my sales)
Other than the above though, which is something that doesn’t affect you yet, looking up solutions to programming exercises is demotivating. Check out all the posts in the forum where people look up a solution and feel bad about their own skills. (It’s like building a house with your bare hands and then being told it’s ugly or poor because it isn’t as nice as the neighbours’). Enjoy your house, with all its faults and learn to build better ones next time. Once you get to a certain level of proficiency, then it will make sense to learn from others (in fact there is a whole series of books dedicated to “design patterns” and “cookbooks” for teaching developers how to code better). But you must build your own basic proficiency first.
Being stuck is normal. Even feeling like there is not one useful idea in your head to solve something is normal. But their are techniques to help you to work things out. One of them is the “talk it out” method. Find someone to discuss the problem with. The celebrated Computer Science professor at Harvard University Prof. Malan, hands out rubber duckies to students in CS50 to help them with this technique (that is, talking to someone is great, but if no one is available you can resort to talking to any object, or forum )
As the others have mentioned, it is completely normal to struggle with the JavaScript challenges.
The key take away from this experience is to learn how to ask for help sooner.
The forum is here to help you understand these concepts.
While we can’t outright give you the answer, we can walk with you to understand how the problem works and help you troubleshoot it so you can arrive at the correct answer.
Learning how to ask questions and reaching out for help is a vital skill that you will need for the job. It is important to start practicing that now
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