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People at work are amazed when I successfully debug an issue over the phone. In reality, it amounts to 50% experience plus another 50% of Sherlock Holmes: "When
by biot 14y ago
People at work are amazed when I successfully debug an issue over the phone. In reality, it amounts to 50% experience plus another 50% of Sherlock Holmes: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth". Once you've identified what you're dealing with via a few strategic questions, it becomes simple quite rapidly.
- 65a 14y agoDebugging is often best accomplished as a binary tree search aimed by familiarity/experience. Once you can put bounds on the search, it becomes possible to get the answer in just a few questions. Totally agree.
- hobs 14y agoThis is the best way to work through debugging/troubleshooting as far as I can tell, amazingly a skill many people lack, and others that just understand it intuitively without it ever thinking about it. That is one of the big divisions between hackers and everyone else in my mind.
- chii 14y agoi think perhaps some people just don't see the world in a hierarchical way, so in their frame of mind, the problem is intractable.
- kamjam 14y agoOne of my favourite debugging tips has always been "give everyone full access to the folder/service" and see if the problem is "fixed". If so revert and now apply the correct permissions. I've seen this come up so many times although my superiors always complained "it's not the right way to do it", whilst I agree "every full access" is bad, this was for debugging purposes only!
- snowwrestler 14y agoIt's amazing how often I am able to fix problems by simply trying all the possible solutions--often while colleagues are saying things like "stop wasting time, it can't possibly be that." But of course often it is "that".