It’s just not about the code
Have you ever felt stuck when working in web development? Working with code and new technologies means that you are going to make a lot of mistakes before reaching an acceptable solution. And it is probable that the next day, this product might be slightly outdated already, because new things arise fast.
While reading an article of one of my mentors, I came across with a relatable feeling, that is “(…) to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, because it’s in that intersection between failure and persistence that progress is made.”
It is a persistent feeling. Some questions pop up in my mind whenever I get stuck:
- Have I studied enough?
- What am I missing?
- Did I research enough? Am I searching in the right places?
- Have they already found out I am a failure?
Usually, we, as developers, are doing the best we can, with the tools we were taught to use. But sometimes we feel we are not doing enough. At least, that is what happens to me and I often suffer in silence (*a rainy black and white window can be seen to add some drama feelings*). That is, I take lots of time researching, following up links, almost going into the Tor browser, before asking the community. This can be good, at some level — but most of the time the developers who worked on the project can share valuable insights. They have stumbled into the same problems or can tell some information about the bug you are trying to solve.
In my case, my mentors often offer enough information about the tasks, therefore I have a good starting point. They also have designed tasks to be done in order, so I would not feel overwhelmed while getting used to the new codebase. I was exposed to the project little by little.
I am always afraid, however, of my code creating a bug somewhere else or that piece of code not being optimized enough. It has happened once when one of my pull requests was accepted and merged. That caused a CSS error on a different page, which I have not tested beforehand.
So when I got the chance, that was my top priority to solve. That was not a bug that would prevent users to work in Treeherder, but it was very noticeable.
Nevertheless, these errors are usually seen before the merge is done. Many tests are performed and code reviews are made before a merge is approved. For that reason, I am not that worried that things go south. I get plenty of help from my mentors as well as community forums, so my stress level keeps low for now.
On one of my latest tasks, I needed to find a keyboard friendly component in a third-party library to compose our app. I started suffering before I began the task. I have not even researched it and I was thinking how hard (or impossible) that was going to be. That I would probably have to build that from scratch.
It turns out that, in my first hours of research, I found that there are a couple of ready-to-use components with the specifications I needed.
The next task was to substitute the component. That was another thing I was afraid of doing and it was the first time in the project I was inserting so much of my writing or that it might hinder another part of the app. But, because the project is well designed, I had to change just some parts of the code. They were all modular parts, which made my change not be as big as I expected and not very intrusive.
Was I agonizing early? At the end of the day, both of my problems were not code-related, they were emotional. That does not make my problem easier to solve though, but at least I know they may not be about to the technical knowledge I have already gathered.
As for advice, I would say try to look within and breathe. You may experience the same problems I described here, so I recommend you to just stop a little and step away from the keyboard. Walking and doing other things, as well as trying to rationalize your feelings, might get you some results. Do not suffer silently or do not overthink about the task. Ask for help and create an action plan. Remember, you are capable of getting your things done and do not let your head tell you otherwise! You are not alone.
