Paul GrahamVerified account

Playing the game Shenzhen I/O has given me a lot of insight into the nature of solving programming problems. One of those insights is that I literally can’t imagine a better solution until I’ve solved the problem first using embarrassing hacks.

This review of Shenzhen I/O is one of those rare reviews that adds to the thing it reviews and improves the experience of playing the game. It points out that “You can’t think of a solution until you know it’s possible”: https://probablydance.com/2016/11/07/lessons-learned-from-shenzhen-io/ …

It’s also much more efficient because at a minimum the hack is enlightening and if you’re lucky it turns out to be sufficient.

I view it as leveraging and canceling debt. Repetitively barrow against future (tech debt), dump the debt for things that don't work, pay off the debt on things that do.

The trouble is that for many problems (and perhaps for most of the especially interesting ones), Step 1 proves to be impossible within the span of a single human lifetime.