Advice for programmers

A good rule of programming involves two things:

1. Programming consists of 10% typing, 40% sitting and thinking, and the other half happens in your subconsious while you eat dinner, drive to work, lie in bed and sleep, etc.
2. If you can't figure out why something works, stop coding; don't just throw permutations at a problem until it mysteriously starts working. Do that enough time and you'll end up with code you don't recognize and can't modify or abstract reliably.

Instead, when you can't figure out why something works, stop typing, sit back, and *think*. And think and think and think. If that doesn't work, start working on some other part of the program, and come back to the part where you're stuck after half an hour or so. If *that* doesn't work, go for a walk (or wander purposefully about the office holding a piece of paper) and think about whatever you feel like. If the problem pops in to your head, think about that (but don't force it). I'm a terrible programmer, and can't figure out anything much at all, so you should take my advice on this.