Hi,

I recently worked with someone who comes from academia and they have been working on a task for 4+ weeks and finally ready to push their code - it still isn't complete and it is thousands of lines of codes.

In a conversation with them I asked tell me about the task and what's going on. Turns out they're still unsure about how to approach this task and that's why they've been going over different solutions, changing code every few days.

I asked what's stopping them from trying out a solution and then if needed, change it. It was interesting to hear from them that it is a valid way of doing things, but they just can't seem to commit. One of the hurdles they're facing is they typically work alone and thus it's very easy for them to just have their code in their own repo and for them to keep changing it. Working on a team and having to commit their code to the main branch means everyone's seeing their code, which is not perfect.

I tried telling them that nobody expects perfect code. In production most of the time the goal is to get a working solution out the door and then iteratively improve it. And they're still very hesitant about push, pushing the code onto the main branch. Having worked in academia, they typically have a longer horizon to work on a task in which they do a lot of literature review try different techniques and then commit to a solution.

Only time will tell how they get over this and start pushing code faster. But it is very interesting to see how much it takes to transition from one phase of life to another. A lot of us change phases be going from school to college college to a PhD program or directly work. Even in personal life, we go through different phases of living with family, living alone, living with roommates, getting married and living with a partner. And we often don't give ourselves the room which includes time and mentally energy to change ourselves as required by the different phases of life. . So if you are going through different phases of your life, make sure to account for some time to adapt to this new chapter of your life.

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Best, Kajal.