If I had a screen in front of me, the temptation would be to do something, to try out the idea...
The nice thing about a longish honest post like this is that the writer is likely to tell you what you need to know whether he meant to or not. This is a good example of condemning something while meaning to praise it. Trying out ideas is half the point of programming!
Well, thanks for the compliment I guess :-) Trying out ideas is indeed the point, but reducing the solution space for a given problem is better done in your head than post-facto in the (written, tested, integrated) code, no? The earlier in the process you fix things, the cheaper it is to fix.
Well, before testing and integrating, sure. Writing it, maybe not. It depends on what you're working on I suppose. Certainly I've had the same experience - not being able to turn on a computer and so thinking about coding instead of doing it and having a better way occur to me. But I think coding immediately still wins usually.
The nice thing about a longish honest post like this is that the writer is likely to tell you what you need to know whether he meant to or not. This is a good example of condemning something while meaning to praise it. Trying out ideas is half the point of programming!