First of all I am notoriously bad at knowing when to quit.
I keep trying things thinking I’m almost there and that I’ll get that code working in the next 5 minutes. Then 3 hours later I have a huge mess and it’s not done yet with me scratching my head.
So when should one quit trying to do something and fall back to some other method of accomplishing the task at hand?
- Know your end goal. Is what you’re doing just refactoring, or working to optimize speed just a little more? Or is this some behavior that is critical to get fixed and you or your customer REALLY want it done bad? Like the reason you’ve been hired or are working on the system in the first place. The need to continue should use the importance of your end goal as a major factor. The less important it is to the critical parties involved, the sooner you should quit and revert!
- How long have you been at it? Have you looked up and the 5 minutes you expected it would take have turned into 3 hours? That’s crazy! This factor coupled with the first element to “Know your end goal” are linked. The more important your end goal, the more time you should allow before turning back.
- Have you asked for help? There are many folks out there you can ask for help and if you have time to ask and wait for a response, that is a good thing to do when you have gotten to your formerly expected time. Maybe your assumptions are wrong, maybe someone else would have an immediate answer that you’re not aware of. Also have you looked at documentation and other online resources. Even running it by CoPilot can sometimes turn up surprising answers that you wouldn’t have otherwise thought of. Forums, colleagues, fellow employees, use all the resources at your disposal. Other people can also give you an idea of whether you should just GIVE UP.
Hopefully these principles can help guide you in knowing when to quit and find an alternative.