7 ms·

I find it interesting that you'd feel shame over a bug. Why?

Devilboy 14y ago
This is a very well-known phenomena. If you don't feel anything after a bug in your code cost your company lots of money and your team members many days in debugging and fixing it... then you're like nobody I've ever worked with.
- jaylevitt 14y ago
  Really? My first major software release took the AOL mail system down for 34 hours. My later work kept it up for 8 years. I consider both equal fodder for bragging, self-immolation, and war stories over drinks. I couldn't tell you which taught me more.
  - PerryCox 14y ago
    I think what the previous commenters are trying to say is that you shouldn't be OK with producing lots of bugs. Sure, you can learn a lot when you make a mistake, but you shouldn't be making the same mistakes.
    - mayanksinghal 14y ago
      I think the bragging part of the bug that brings the system down for hours and requires significant efforts in RCA is that the initial work was important and the bug likely to be non-trivial. Non-trivial bugs happen. I will not be proud of small stupid bugs I make but non-trivial bugs, the discovery of which brings sort-of an excitement - that is something I can be proud of.
  - vacri 14y ago
    That sounds like you feel something about both of those things.
    - jaylevitt 14y ago
      You're right. I feel sheepish and proud and part of a bigger effort, but I do not feel nothing.
- jaylevitt 14y ago
  You're right. I feel sheepish and proud and part of a bigger effort, but I do not feel nothing.
mdkess 14y ago
I feel shame over bugs. Of course, it depends on the nature of the bug, but there are definite moments of deep self reflection, which I think that I internalize as shame. While I reflect and move on, as a professional, I should be making as few mistakes as possible. When a star hockey player screws up a play that could have won their team the game, I imagine that they feel shame - not that they will get fired for the incident, but self relection is how you improve, and in many people, that manifests as a healthy amount of shame. (Not that I'm the Gretzky of software development). Recently, a piece of code that I wrote crashed after running for over a month because I forgot to lock one of several methods that was concurrently accessing a collection. I was very ashamed of this - this was an amateur mistake, and one that someone with the amount of experience that I had should not have made. I didn't get any any trouble for this, but I was pretty ashamed. "I am better than this, and I should not be making this sort of mistake," I thought and have been very careful to avoid this sort of thing since.
- damoncali 14y ago
  I'm not dogging people who feel bad over bugs, I just don't feel that way myself. I've never written a bug-free piece of software, so I just accept that bugs are part of the deal. When I screw up, I just fix it. On the bad ones, I feel a tinge of regret (as in "oops, my bad. Let me help correct that.") if I inconvenienced anyone else, but nothing I would call shame (which to me implies internalizing negative emotions about one's self). I don't write perfect software, and I never will. I'm choosing to not feel bad about that. It's all matter of perspective and expectations, isn't it? My colleagues can think less of me if they like - that's their baggage, though, and I won't pick it up. Shame is dangerous, and leads to a lot of the communications errors that developers make, which are often worse than the bug itself, or even the cause of it.

This is a very well-known phenomena. If you don't feel anything after a bug in your code cost your company lots of money and your team members many days in debugging and fixing it... then you're like nobody I've ever worked with.

jaylevitt 14y ago
Really? My first major software release took the AOL mail system down for 34 hours. My later work kept it up for 8 years. I consider both equal fodder for bragging, self-immolation, and war stories over drinks. I couldn't tell you which taught me more.
- PerryCox 14y ago
  I think what the previous commenters are trying to say is that you shouldn't be OK with producing lots of bugs. Sure, you can learn a lot when you make a mistake, but you shouldn't be making the same mistakes.
  - mayanksinghal 14y ago
    I think the bragging part of the bug that brings the system down for hours and requires significant efforts in RCA is that the initial work was important and the bug likely to be non-trivial. Non-trivial bugs happen. I will not be proud of small stupid bugs I make but non-trivial bugs, the discovery of which brings sort-of an excitement - that is something I can be proud of.
- vacri 14y ago
  That sounds like you feel something about both of those things.
  - jaylevitt 14y ago
    You're right. I feel sheepish and proud and part of a bigger effort, but I do not feel nothing.
jaylevitt 14y ago
You're right. I feel sheepish and proud and part of a bigger effort, but I do not feel nothing.

mdkess 14y ago

I feel shame over bugs. Of course, it depends on the nature of the bug, but there are definite moments of deep self reflection, which I think that I internalize as shame. While I reflect and move on, as a professional, I should be making as few mistakes as possible. When a star hockey player screws up a play that could have won their team the game, I imagine that they feel shame - not that they will get fired for the incident, but self relection is how you improve, and in many people, that manifests as a healthy amount of shame. (Not that I'm the Gretzky of software development). Recently, a piece of code that I wrote crashed after running for over a month because I forgot to lock one of several methods that was concurrently accessing a collection. I was very ashamed of this - this was an amateur mistake, and one that someone with the amount of experience that I had should not have made. I didn't get any any trouble for this, but I was pretty ashamed. "I am better than this, and I should not be making this sort of mistake," I thought and have been very careful to avoid this sort of thing since.

damoncali 14y ago
I'm not dogging people who feel bad over bugs, I just don't feel that way myself. I've never written a bug-free piece of software, so I just accept that bugs are part of the deal. When I screw up, I just fix it. On the bad ones, I feel a tinge of regret (as in "oops, my bad. Let me help correct that.") if I inconvenienced anyone else, but nothing I would call shame (which to me implies internalizing negative emotions about one's self). I don't write perfect software, and I never will. I'm choosing to not feel bad about that. It's all matter of perspective and expectations, isn't it? My colleagues can think less of me if they like - that's their baggage, though, and I won't pick it up. Shame is dangerous, and leads to a lot of the communications errors that developers make, which are often worse than the bug itself, or even the cause of it.