Debugging Is a Reasoning Problem
Debugging becomes much easier when you stop guessing and start treating every failure as evidence.
// TABLE OF CONTENTS+
05DiscussionExpected versus actual
The first question in debugging is not how to fix the code. It is where reality diverges from the mental model.
The earliest incorrect assumption is usually more useful than the final error message.
debug.tstypescript
console.log({
expected,
actual,
});| Stage | Question |
|---|---|
| Expected | What should happen? |
| Actual | What happens? |
| Evidence | What do we know? |
| Hypothesis | What explains the difference? |
- Reproduce the failure.
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OPEN
Thoughts on the article.
Finding the earliest divergence is probably the most useful debugging habit I have picked up recently.
Treating the error as evidence instead of immediately guessing at a fix completely changes the debugging process.