Unnamed Tech Podcast

Troubleshooting issues is an art form that is at first glance all based on experience.  The idea is that if you’ve seen the problem before, then you can fix it easily.  This mentality is what keeps people from being able to fix problems correctly.  I believe that troubleshooting comes down to breaking things into little bits and examining each part individually.  Here are my top 5 rules of troubleshooting problems

1. If you didn’t change anything and the problem goes away, then you didn’t fix the problem.  It will return.  If you can repeat a problem, then it can be fixed.  Try to find a way to repeat the problem safely.  Intermittent problems are always the worst to diagnose, so do what you need to do in order to reduce the randomness.
2. Break it down into little manageable pieces.  sometimes we get overwhelmed with the complexity that nothing gets fixed.  Try to isolate each individual portion of the problem to make it easier to work with. 
3. If something has been working well and then stops working, find out what changed.  This sounds obvious, but it really is true.  Ask the question "What’s different?  What changed?"  Don’t just dive into your own code (the code that you know is fully tested and was working correctly), examine all exterior factors to determine the root cause.
4. Listen, really pay attention to what is going on.  Sometimes you will notice things that you never thought of before.   
5. Don’t panic.  We all remember this saying from The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, but it really holds true.  When you panic, you start to make incorrect decisions.