from Hacker News

What to do when stuck on a problem? Sleep.

by zackyap on 9/2/12, 10:05 AM with 11 comments

• by mtkd on 9/2/12, 12:40 PM

  Anything that takes you away from the problem will help.

  Take a shower if you don't have long.

  I recommend walking before taking on a big problem - even if you're not stuck.

  A 1h walk means you are unable to code your first solution, by the time you get back you'll be 4 iterations on in your head - you've just saved yourself 2 days.

• by kiba on 9/2/12, 12:02 PM

  So, it's a short post about how sleeping might help, but there's no attempt to actually conduct a scientific experiment to find out if you get better ideas by doing that. At the very least you could do is supplement your post with some citations.

  Are startup people so lazy that they rely only on seat-of-the-pant anecdotal evidences?

• by atirip on 9/2/12, 2:20 PM

  Yes, yes, exactly what i am doing for a long time, deliberatley. My brain works at night, i usally can not get very good sleep, but i do see lot of interesting dreams and somehow the solution presents himself at some point. Be prepared you may forgot the solution when you wake up like dreams you saw. So try to not mix them in the middle of the night ;-) And no, i cannot help with that, i can separate them somehow.