It sure is. I find that writing about a dilemma solidifies the pros and cons. It's much better to spend a couple of hours at the keyboard, even a day, than to

It sure is. I find that writing about a dilemma solidifies the pros and cons. It's much better to spend a couple of hours at the keyboard, even a day, than to go charging off in the wrong direction. The real problem with going in the wrong direction is the difficulty of backing away from sunk costs. Don't take that to mean that I'm not in favor of a little coding research to get my mind around a problem; it is usually a win. I have also found that verbal requests, especially from a boss or client, need to be fleshed out in writing. Avoids spending a week on a feature, only to have the client pissed off, because I couldn't read his mind. Even HN helps. I'm finding that frequent commenting here is improving my ability to capture ideas concisely. (Or so the illusion goes :-)