If the presented problem isn’t complex enough, developers will figure out ways to make it complicated and therefore challenging.

Shortly after reading about the anti-pattern, I had a meeting to attend. It becomes apparent pretty quickly how true the anti-pattern is as I sat in listened in this meeting. This got me to thinking about problems and solutions of everyday life.

The first thing that comes to mind is how we communicate. Back when cavemen walked the Earth communication was nothing more then pointing and grunts. Fast forward to Today where we have E-mail, Twitter, Cell Phones, signal fires, and video conferencing. One could go on for a pretty long time one just the number of different ways we interact with others these days. Anther fine example of complexity with communication is that forms of interaction that were not suppose to be instant are being treated as such. I can not count the number of times I would get an e-mail from someone and an hour later get a phone call or another email asking if I had received the first one! I know make it a general rule to ignore my email when I am being productive.

This quote has actually got me thinking about my problem solving abilities. I have noticed that I am guilty of taking the more complex rout because it would be more entertaining and/or challenging. It actually has me concerned. I don’t want to write complex code because I can! I have added a step to my problem solving process because of this quote and realizations. When trying to solve a problem, I make sure to stop and ask myself if there is a less complex way of solving the problem. Sure there may be an easy way to solve the problem, however easy does not mean simple. We have all seen a “fix” that was one line of code but was confusing as hell.

The site is fairly popular among developers. The 100,000 question was recently asked with many added everyday. The community looks to be pretty strong and oddly mature. I say oddly mature because it is the Internet after all.

Stack Overflow is programmer crack. I find myself setting at the questions page hitting refresh over and over again waiting for new questions to be asked. Its fun to see what roadblocks other programmers are stack at. It is also a good feeling to get voted up on question and/or answers on the site. The ultimate joy is when your question is accepted as the answer. It some how validates you as a programmer when one of your questions get marked as an  answer or is up voted. Stack Overflow addicting nature is what keeps me coming back day after day to see what has been posted.

Stack Overflow is currently working out great for many people. Questions (depending on complexity) will have answers or suggestions shortly after posting because the community seems eager to help. And yes the answers are normally helpful in someway, shape, or form. In the end Stack Overflow comes highly recommended from this developer.

Tony.