
Is there any way to get faster at solving bugs? - jared314
http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/197675/is-there-any-way-to-get-faster-at-solving-bugs-ive-just-had-a-warning-from-my
======
greenyoda
There's some interesting discussion here at the previous (now dead) post of
this article:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6308316](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6308316)

In particular, this comment about using the scientific method to diagnose bugs
is valuable:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6308826](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6308826)

It's much more productive to formulate hypotheses and then gather evidence to
prove/disprove them than to jump in with the debugger and start trying things
at random. It's also worthwhile to spend some time trying to isolate the
simplest possible reproduction of the bug.

There are actually books that have been written about how to debug in a
systematic way (sorry, I don't remember the titles offhand).

~~~
jared314
> There's some interesting discussion here at the previous (now dead) post of
> this article

Looks like someone revived it.

------
jared314
The last update on his question is the most poignant. After seeking help
online, and failing to improve to his manager's standards, he lost his job.
But, he used his stackoverflow account and this question will now appear when
someone searches for his username, and may count against him when applying for
another job, for which he may be better suited.

------
nilkn
I blame this on the manager as much as the developer.

A company I've worked for once had a developer quit very abruptly. He did so
immaturely, but it happened because his manager was dissatisfied with his
performance and instead of offering tips and advice early on when the problem
was first observed the manager waited until about eight months had passed and
unleashed incredibly harsh criticism on him, basically threatening to fire him
without mercy if he didn't improve. The developer felt so bad and embarrassed
that he couldn't stand to work there and he just quit without even giving two
weeks' notice. I think he was completely caught off guard and went from
feeling great in the job to feeling like complete shit.

He was allowed for eight months to believe he was doing well, then told that
all that work was not appreciated and he'd be fired if he didn't more or less
immediately do better.

~~~
DavidWoof
Well, there's also "I've been here 2 years and it's obvious to everyone that
I'm still struggling" and "I think I've become so demoralised and feel so
marginalised that I've lost a lot of the fire..."

So this dev knows he's been struggling and he knows everyone around him knows
it. There's no indication at all that this was a surprise to him or that the
problems hadn't been mentioned earlier. It sounds to me that the manager gave
him much more time than was really deserved to catch on, and he simply never
did. We're both guessing a bit based on incomplete info, but it looks like the
message didn't go from "you're doing great" to "you're doing horribly", but
rather went from "you're struggling but we're willing to give you time" to
"you know, time is almost up".

If after two years it's obvious to everyone that you're the weak link, then
while training might help a little, you're probably just in the wrong place.

