Kind of felt like that last week. Our web-UI would automatically reload when you switched tabs, clearing out what the user had entered into a form. I started debugging, but the build times of our web-UI have been abysmal, making it extremely tedious to sprinkle log statements over the code for narrowing down what triggers the reload.
So, I decided to fix the build times first. The solution wasn’t complex, basically just pull out a module into a separate library to benefit from incremental compilation, but with all the import changes and some additional restructuring, it still ended up being around 2000 lines of code changed.
Then I went back to debugging the reload problem, looked at it for 10 minutes, maybe rebuilt 3 times or so, and then made a lucky guess where I just changed one word for another and that fixed it. 🫠
Legend
Honestly, the problem I encounter most with junior devs is that no one taught them to use the scientific method when trying to troubleshoot issues. Seems like everyone wants the answer to be handed to them on a platter and that just ain’t the way it goes.
Honestly, that the problem with most people in most departments. No one learned the scientific method. Engineering, product, marketing. So many just panic and throw shit at the wall with how an understanding of how to isolate a variable.
