Research can be better than knowledge.

The problem from this week for my Project Euler series was something that I was not immediately aware how to answer.  Let's just say it has been a little while since I took my last math course, and doing up the house hold budget doesn't involve a lot of searching for the sum of primes, nor does it have anything to do with numbers in the millions. I was out of my league on this one. I needed help. I hit the net and did some research into various techniques of summing primes.

This is important enough to warrant it's own post because I think this is an insanely important thing to know for programming. No one is going to know everything that there is to know about anything. It just isn't possible.  More important (at least in my eyes) is the ability to research and comprehend what you don't know in a timely fashion.  I stressed the comprehend part of that because it doesn't help out, in the long run, if you simply search for an answer on a website (or an amazing blog), copy and paste the code into your own project, and give the answer to the Project Euler website. Sure, it will make you feel good about having a large number of solutions on your cool little icon, but that is about the extent of what you will get out of it. If you comprehend it, however, you will be able to retain a bit of it in the back of your mind, and you will have a much greater chance of recalling it next time something like that comes up.

This doesn't just apply to the Project Euler problems either. This can be applied to anything. If you come across something in your programming journey that you just don't know how to do, embrace the opportunity.  Take some time, whatever time you can, and look into the topic.  Dig a little deeper than just the answer to your immediate problem.  Find the answer to greater questions.

Also don't get stuck. This can vary easily get out of had. In addition to looking into, comprehending, and retaining answers, you also need to know when to call it good enough and move on.  Your boss will hopefully be able to appreciate you expanding your knowledge base to some extent, but if you expand it to the point of neglecting your work, his views might change slightly.  Getting an understanding of a topic is different than researching the topic for your PhD thesis.

Until next time...

Enjoy!