STOP JUST CODING — START THINKING LIKE A PROGRAMMER

Ever caught yourself staring at your screen, not because you don’t know how to code… but because you don’t know where to start?

Yeah — that moment when your code editor is open, your brain’s buffering, and Stack Overflow suddenly looks like paradise 👀

Here’s the truth: coding isn’t the hard part — problem-solving is.

That’s what separates a “coder” from a “programmer.”

And it’s exactly what V. Anton Spraul’s author of the book "Think Like a Programmer" drills into every developer’s mind: stop jumping straight into syntax, and start building a systematic way of thinking.

Below is only a small fraction of it wisdom

💡 HERE’S THE GAME PLAN FOR THINKING LIKE A PROGRAMMER

1️⃣ ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN

Don’t rush to code. Step back. Analyze. Write down what the program should do before touching the keyboard. The plan will evolve, but thinking before coding saves hours of debugging chaos later.

2️⃣ RESTATE THE PROBLEM

If you can’t explain the problem simply, you don’t understand it yet. Talk it out — even to your water bottle (it’s called rubber duck debugging 🦆). Clarity is power.

3️⃣ DIVIDE AND CONQUER

Break big problems into smaller, digestible chunks. Solving five little tasks is better than battling one monster problem. Think Lego bricks, not skyscrapers.

4️⃣ START WITH WHAT YOU KNOW

Confidence builds clarity. Knock out the parts you understand first — they’ll light up the path for the rest.

5️⃣ REDUCE THE PROBLEM

If it feels impossible, shrink it. Solve a smaller version first, then scale up. Complexity is conquered one layer at a time.

6️⃣ LOOK FOR ANALOGIES AND EXPERIMENT

You’ve solved something like this before — find the pattern. Then play. Test ideas. Break things safely. That’s how innovation starts.

🧠 THE REAL TAKEAWAY

Programming is less about typing and more about thinking strategically.

It’s not the code that’s powerful — it’s the mind behind it.

So next time you face a bug, a blank page, or a brutal logic puzzle…

pause, plan, break it down, and think like a programmer.

💭 Don’t just code solutions. Design your thought process.