[hi-wintermute]

This reminds me of a tongue-in-cheek phrase we used to use in college.

"Hours of coding can save minutes of planning."

"Discovery Coding" sounds fun, but be careful with your time!

[boxed]

The opposite is also true.

I've seen the opposite happen maaaaany times, but I have never had what you describe happen that I can remember. Coding, if done top down, will find the real problems really fast. Discussions don't have this property of touching reality.

Discussing a problem is like theology.

Coding it is like science.

One involves thinking real hard, the other involves hard reality.

[sfn42]

Can't plan what you dont know. That's the point, you discover/explore what you need in order to make a proper plan.

[nurbl]

I find that I always learn something valuable by diving in and trying ideas out concretely. High-flying plans can also cause a lot of wasted coding on things that won't work out.

[esperent]

> careful with your time!

In my experience, this aphorism applies equally to any form of coding, and probably to nearly any complex human activity.

If you love writing outlines and plans, you can just as well waste time on that as the discovery coder does in their pathfinding. Not to mention the amount of time you can waste on refactoring and reorganizing.

[elcapitan]

Also, minutes of planning without understanding the topic can lead to months of coding.