Problem Solving in Programming

"Being able to program is not the problem. Understanding the problem is the problem" - one of my lecturers in University.

The difficulty of programming isn't from having to type too much, it's from solving problems.

Huh? Programming is easy. Thought is hard.

You're looking too much into my phrasing. I don't expect someone to just sit down and write the same program over and over. The point is for them to come up with problems they want solved, and solve that problem with code. Thinking about the problem and the solution is a big part of the process, as you say.

There is no silver bullet (Brooks). The complex part of programming is not writing code. It’s the conceptualization of the problem. Even if one day Claude is able to crank out perfect code fully autonomously, the complex part of figuring out how to solve a given problem in software remains. And would still be as complex.

Most programmers are just code plumbers. It's not like most of you are some research scientists breaking into the unknown. In fact for most jobs I've held programming has been by far the easiest part of the job. Understanding the 'real' requirements from the client (not what they think they want but what they actually want) and many other things are on a completely different level of complexity. Computers are the most basic parts of a business. I've also noticed that mos

i have the same intuitionin the end, it seems a lot of people just want well defined rules (that work to a reasonable extent) to follow and instead use their thinking for solving the actual problem at hand (programming)its not unreasonable, especially if someone is hired to be just a "coder", there might be some hiring/expectations issues hidden in there too...

I don't agree. I think the problem is that people tend to think they need to do things a certain way instead of believing in themselves, understanding that programming is about evolving ideas and code in tandem with reality, and just understanding the problems they are solving. Most programmers just attempt to map problem to solution directly without first understanding the problem. Which is okay for trivial problems, but a bad idea for anything that is more complex.

The actual writing of code is the easy part of programming; it's the conceptual solving of problems that is difficult. If you think in terms of any particular language, you are limited by those terms.Possibly, he's partly upset about the type of problems that he'd be solving in those languages, rather than the languages themselves.

I call BS (in as good natured and respectful way as possible), and I have my own numbered list to share:1) I've been hearing this every 5-10 years for the past 30 years, and it still hasn't happened (which is enough to explain my scepticism but granted doesn't prove anything).2) The hardest part of what programmers do isn't pasting crap into an editor, snapping blocks into scratch or waving their hands at Jarvis, it's understanding the frickin' problem and thi