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Double Back Development

Have you been stuck on a problem at the end of the day only to think about it all night? Then when you start work the next day, you are able to solve the problem quickly. I think I may found a reason that happens.

I got this idea from listening to this TED talk: Can Slowing Down Help You Be More Creative?

In this talk, Adam Grant discusses how procrastinating can lead to more original and creative ideas. He found that there is a curve for creative ideas. People that get things done as soon as possible and those that get things done at the last possible moment tend to produce the least creative work. However, someone that puts things off a little is allowed to let new ideas form and still has time to actually implement them.

One of my biggest takeaways was the idea of, “Quick to start, slow to finish”. To cultivate creativity, you want to start a project off as soon as possible, but then set it aside and leave it alone for a while.

With this in mind, I am suggesting a different approach to how we develop code. I call it Double back Development.

Double back Development is the idea that you start a feature, you get some of it done, but then you do not finish it. You move on to a different feature. You continue this pattern to get a few different threads going. Then you double back to that first feature you started a while ago. You get to continue work on this feature with fresh ideas. You also have not devoted so much time and effort into it that it feels bad to start over if your new approach requires. I think this will lead to more creative solutions.

Will this idea work? I don’t know yet, but I plan to experiment and find out.
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