Sometimes you have to step away from a problem to better be able to tackle it. I have been wrestling with my google apps script for weeks. After that last post, I put it away for a bit, but apparently not long enough. I had a goal: create a form using Google Apps Script that uploaded files and the recorded the information submitted. Seems simple enough.
It wasn’t.
But the difficulty was my fault, not the code. My brain didn’t formulate the problem the way I phrased it above. My brain had already decided how we were going to solve the problem. So I spent weeks playing with the code so that I had a form that uploaded a file to Google Drive, imported information into a Google Sheet, and sent an email that there was a new submission.
Are your eyes rolling yet?
Mine were, but not for the same reason. I had tunnel vision. I was going to make this complex code do more than it really needed to do. The solution only came after I stepped away for a long time, spent time with family that was visiting, and really reassessed the problem I needed to solve. Quick as lightning, the answer came. I just needed the form to send an email with the upload attached and all the information in the body.
Once I took the time to simplify the problem, I was able to be more creative about the solution. I had built myself a box that I kept making tighter and tighter with added functionality requirements. Once I broke it all down, I had a platform, granted it is really roughly scripted, that solved my problem, finally.
These are the moments I love. When I don’t just learn some new skill, but I learn a more ubiquitous lesson. I am realizing most of my grand lessons are around patience and letting go, but maybe that’s just a coincidence.
– Cas
Tinkering Librarians 