1. Know and understand the problem you're trying to solve. 2. Communicate with your team. Whether it's an annoying problem with the standard library or debuggi

1. Know and understand the problem you're trying to solve. 2. Communicate with your team. Whether it's an annoying problem with the standard library or debugging the impossible, you'll likely to spark new ideas or reconsider things previously overlooked just by talking to someone about it. 3. Document everything and anytime you can. Even if it's just unorganized notes. The longer you wait, the more likely the knowledge will fade. You can always clean it up later. 4. Earn your "Debugging Wizard" title by investing time in learning tools like gdb, strace, tcpdump, perf. Don't be afraid of getting your hands dirty. The more time you spend learning the stack, the more you can get out of it. Also frame this[1] 5. Know when to leave work at work. [1]: http://www.brendangregg.com/Perf/linux_perf_tools_full.png http://www.brendangregg.com/Perf/linux_perf_tools_full.png