Using writing to think through a problem

Let's say you hit some weird behavior in your app, and it's not clear to you what the issue is. After struggling for a while, your impulse might be to reach out to a fellow developer and ask for help.

Recently, I was in this situation, and I wanted to ask Aaron a question, but he wasn't around. So instead, I started typing up a description of the problem to email to him. I described what was happening, what I've already tried, along with a few theories as to what I thought might be happening.

Interestingly, in the 10 - 15 minutes it took me to document this, I had a "light bulb moment" and saw what I was missing. The simple act of laying out the problem in writing made the solution clear to me.

This isn't the only time this has happened to me either, so the next time you're stuck, give this approach a try!

Here to help,

Joel

P.S. If you've tried this and are still stuck with a Laravel issue, we can help!