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You need to believe that computers are understandable. There’s no magic involved. Eventually, every abstraction leaks — so if you have fear or learned helples

You need to believe that computers are understandable. There’s no magic involved. Eventually, every abstraction leaks — so if you have fear or learned helplessness blocking you from trying to understand the leaky abstraction layer, the only way you can debug it is by squeezing your eyes shut and trying random things, which is ineffective. You really need to internalize that even things that seem mysterious happen for reasons, and that those reasons are something you could in principle figure out.

busterarm 6y ago
As an extension of this, you need the ability to resist the urge to flip a table and walk away from a problem that seems too hard. Debugging can be like picking threads out of a tangle of yarn most of the time. Often when you have the most riding on the line. Stress management/Self-management skills are critical (should be in the top 3) and often overlooked.