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Talk to someone. Tell them about the problem. Show them your previous steps trying to figure it out. Talk about possible solution you've thought of. Share your

by entrep 5y ago

Talk to someone. Tell them about the problem. Show them your previous steps trying to figure it out. Talk about possible solution you've thought of. Share your frustration. Ask them if they have any ideas. When you are done you would have come up with at least one new thing to try.

nine_k 5y ago
The other party you talk to need not to be a top-notch engineer. Good results were reported with the use of a rubber duck. With some training, you can talk to a more intelligent counterpart, yourself. One more approach that worked several times for me is to start writing a Stackoverflow question, carefully formulating the problem for the reader who does not have your context. Often I saw the answer before you finish writing, and never posted the question.
- tharkun__ 5y ago
  I do almost the same. I don't usually use an actual rubber duck or another person and definitely not out on stack overflow but I start writing an explanation for why the bug I'm looking into happens as a reply to the bug ticket and/or ask questions to other people. It keeps evolving as I write down and check hypotheses and validate or invalidate them without ever actually posting the reply. In the end I either have a question left over that I can post or I have a trace of how/why the bug happened and post that, which comes in very handy when people inevitably ask "dumb questions" in the code review on why the fix is what the fix is. It really helps to have these things written down somewhere as you can easily refer back to them as you revert back up the depth first search stack in your head. I guess some people can do this entirely in their head but I can't especially with all the interruptions one has. One of our guys actually had an actual rubber duck sent to them by their employer. This was for a remote only position like 10 years ago by now.

by entrep 5y ago

nine_k 5y ago

The other party you talk to need not to be a top-notch engineer. Good results were reported with the use of a rubber duck. With some training, you can talk to a more intelligent counterpart, yourself. One more approach that worked several times for me is to start writing a Stackoverflow question, carefully formulating the problem for the reader who does not have your context. Often I saw the answer before you finish writing, and never posted the question.

tharkun__ 5y ago
I do almost the same. I don't usually use an actual rubber duck or another person and definitely not out on stack overflow but I start writing an explanation for why the bug I'm looking into happens as a reply to the bug ticket and/or ask questions to other people. It keeps evolving as I write down and check hypotheses and validate or invalidate them without ever actually posting the reply. In the end I either have a question left over that I can post or I have a trace of how/why the bug happened and post that, which comes in very handy when people inevitably ask "dumb questions" in the code review on why the fix is what the fix is. It really helps to have these things written down somewhere as you can easily refer back to them as you revert back up the depth first search stack in your head. I guess some people can do this entirely in their head but I can't especially with all the interruptions one has. One of our guys actually had an actual rubber duck sent to them by their employer. This was for a remote only position like 10 years ago by now.