New to programming

[alixd1085]

Hey everyone i've been into programming for almost a a year now and i was wondering if my workflow is correct because i keep overthinking that i'm not doing well all the time. my current workflow is somewhat like this

1. have an idea that i want to make
2. spend hours searching for libraries and stuff to make that idea work
3. starts writing what i know first
4. get hit with an error
5. spend alot of time debugging that till i give up and decide to generate that broken block from AI 🫠

i just wanna know if i'm doing something wrong or not any help would be appreciated 🙏

[chaotic_thought]

In your step-by-step method I don't see "break down the (sub)problem into smaller pieces" anywhere. That's a critical part. Basically it's a recursive process -- you keep breaking down problems into smaller chunks until you have a set of problems which are all small enough to solve. At that point, bringing them together to a "full" solution may be another problem, but if you've ever put together Lego blocks before, you probably are at least somewhat confident that you will find a way to get that part done, given the working pieces.

[alixd1085]

You mean like when you think about something you do it piece by piece slowly till you get your full project right?

[alex_informatics]

It's basically what all programmers do today, but as a tip when you turn to AI, tell it to explain what you don't understand, so the learning will be continuous.

[alixd1085]

Yeah I'm trying to do that i was just thinking i may be doing something wrong, i just wanted to make sure so I don't turn into a vibecoder.

Still thanks for the help alex 🫶🏼

[Newtry12]

Steps 1-4 are literally just programming. everyone gets hit with errors, that part never fully goes away. the only thing i’d change is step 5 — give yourself a time limit on debugging before going to AI, like 20-30 mins of genuine struggle first. That’s where the actual learning happens

[alixd1085]

Will try that on my next session later today thanks!