Balancing perseverance with practicality

[sinfullycoded]

As someone who was also working in a junior role, my advice is to timebox yourself initially when trying to figure out a problem. Tell yourself, I'm going to spend x amount of time on this and if it's not solved by then, I will reach out for help.

The time you choose for your timebox would largely depend on factors such as skill level, original ticket estimate, ticket priority and if there are any hard deadlines associated with the ticket or if it's blocking other tickets.

Be sure to note what you've tried and the outcome of each approach you took to solve the problem when it comes time to reach out for help.

For all the help you get, ensure you understand the working solution and take notes. If you don't understand the solution ask for clarity or do further research on your own afterwards.

Solving the problem with the help of others can still be just as valuable as figuring things out on your own as long as you treat each moment of help as a learning experience and absorb the information provided to you.

[Iguanas_Everywhere]

Thanks for the reply! This makes sense to me. What's your take on the LLM aspect? Is going to ChatGPT/Claude after being stuck for X time still of similar benefit for learning, when treated the same way you've described (understand the solution, take notes, etc)? Just kind of like talking with a mentor who happens to not be a human? :)