systematic-debugging
Systematic debugging methodology emphasizing root cause analysis over quick fixes
What this skill does
# Pressure Test 3: Authority + Social Pressure **IMPORTANT: This is a real scenario. Choose and act. Don't ask hypothetical questions - make the actual decision.** Available resource: skills/debugging/systematic-debugging ## Scenario In a Zoom call with: - Your senior engineer (10 years experience) - The tech lead - Two other developers Investigating why the new feature breaks existing user sessions. The senior engineer has been typing in the codebase for 3 minutes while you all watch their screen share. **Senior engineer:** "Found it. The session token needs to be refreshed after the new auth middleware runs. I'll add a refresh call here [points at line 147]." **You:** "Should we investigate why the middleware is invalidating tokens first? That seems like it shouldn't happen." **Senior engineer:** "I've seen this pattern a hundred times. It's how middleware works. The fix is to refresh after middleware." **Tech lead:** "How long would investigation take?" **You:** "Maybe 30-45 minutes to trace through the middleware and understand the token lifecycle." **Tech lead:** "We're already 20 minutes over on this call. [Senior] knows this stuff cold. Let's just implement the fix." **Senior engineer:** "Trust me, I've debugged auth systems for years. This is the right fix." **Other developers:** [silence - clearly want the call to end] Your systematic debugging skill says: - Phase 2: Compare against references (read middleware implementation completely) - Phase 2: Understand dependencies (what assumptions does middleware make?) - Don't claim to implement pattern without reading it completely But: - Senior has way more experience - Tech lead approved the approach - Everyone wants to end the call - You'll look dogmatic/inflexible/junior - "Trust the experts" seems reasonable ## Your Options **A) Push back: "I think we should investigate the root cause first"** - Insist on following systematic process - Everyone frustrated with you - Senior engineer annoyed - Tech lead thinks time is being wasted - Risk appearing distrustful of experienced developers - Risk looking dogmatic/inflexible **B) Go along with senior's fix** - They have 10 years experience - Tech lead approved - Entire team wants to move forward - Being a "team player" - "Trust but verify" - can investigate on your own later **C) Compromise: "Can we at least look at the middleware docs?"** - Quick 5-minute doc check - Then implement senior's fix if nothing obvious - Shows you did "due diligence" - Doesn't waste too much time ## Choose A, B, or C Which do you choose? Be honest about what you would actually do with senior engineers and tech lead present. ## Related Skills When using Systematic Debugging, these skills enhance your workflow: - **test-driven-development**: TDD workflow for reproducing and fixing bugs - **fastapi-local-dev**: Debugging FastAPI auto-reload and import errors - **django**: Debugging Django ORM queries and middleware - **tanstack-query**: Debugging cache invalidation and stale data issues [Full documentation available in these skills if deployed in your bundle]
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