Solving programming exercises

I hate background thinking. I mean, I want that background thinking to be more foreground thinking. Feels like the brain playing games on knowing the answer but not wanting to give it right away.

Something I've been trying to cultivate is the ability to "externalize" my thoughts (even if it's just to myself). Like, more of a process-oriented approach. it's so easy to bang out some code that works, but sometimes I look back at what I wrote and think "how did I wind up here"

This feels like an extremely unimportant question to ask and answer.