The debugging instinct isn’t magic. It’s mental models and habits that experienced developers use without realising. I’ve spent a long time making those models explicit.
How to narrow down a problem, read logs, and stay methodical when the pressure is high. That’s what I write about here.
Start here
-
The Hunt That Makes Me a Better Coder
It all started when I wrote “Hello world”… and it didn’t work. The year was probably 1996, and the programming language was most likely PHP. That’s the first time I remember truly debugging, actively digging into what wasn’t working, and why. At its core, debugging hasn’t changed since the term was coined, even though the…
-
12 things to watch when debugging flaky tests
✅ Quarantine flaky tests fast – don’t let them poison CI.🔄 Check for leaked global state (variables, config, env).🗄️ Clean your database between tests.⏰ Look for time-dependent logic sneaking in.🌐 Mock external dependencies – never trust the network.♻️ Reset everything: globals, env, DB state.📌 Freeze time for stable results.🖥️ For browser tests: use robust selectors…