I wanted to write something similar, so I just upvoted you and piggybacked here. "Debugging" is really a subset of "Problem Solving". My grandfather had (by to

I wanted to write something similar, so I just upvoted you and piggybacked here. "Debugging" is really a subset of "Problem Solving". My grandfather had (by today's standards) very poor schooling, but he taught me some PHYSICAL WORLD DEBUGGING techniques which proved useful later in life. Just one simple example (I suppose this would be "Tracing" in IT) - once he was working on a cabinet that had somehow warped and wouldn't close properly. His solution: he cleaned the door and the frame, dipped his finger in oil and smeared it along the side of the door that would touch the frame. Then closed the door and opened it again - the point were some trace of oil was visible on the frame was the one that needed to be pared down to allow the door to close. He also used intuitively divide&conquer to find faults or leaks in wirings and pipes and so on. It is really something that should get more study and practice outside of IT or science, and I am sure that mechanics and other craftsmen have their own set of algorithms that can be used in various situations.