What Debugging Is Really Like

The eternal cycle of software development immortalized in one perfect image. That // TODO: Fix later comment you casually dropped six months ago has officially joined the ranks of mythical creatures - right alongside consistent documentation and bug-free first deployments. The gravestone is brutally honest - "LATER" never actually arrives. Those temporary workarounds become permanent architectural decisions. That quick hack becomes a load-bearing comment. Your tech debt compounds faster than your student loans. Meanwhile, your codebase slowly transforms into an archaeological dig site where future developers will uncover your broken promises like ancient artifacts.

Content WHAT I SAY I'm a software develo- WHAT PEOPLE HEAR I can repair your computer, fix your internet. configure your printer, revive your phone, set up your email, build a billion-dollar app, and hack into any system. All for free. lam the IT god. WHAT I MEAN I can Google better than the average bear.

Forget "have you tried turning it off and on again" - tech support is just dating with more troubleshooting and less romance. Both involve hours of frustration, miscommunication, and ultimately walking away wondering why you bothered. At least with tech support, you can hang up without getting ghosted first.

Ah, the classic "password already in use" error that somehow manages to be both a security feature and a privacy nightmare simultaneously. Nothing says "secure system" like telling you exactly who has the same terrible password. Somewhere, a security engineer is having a stroke while starboy98 is frantically changing all his accounts because he used "password123" everywhere. This is why we can't have nice things in cybersecurity.

Content Fireship fireshipdev Follow The untold history of web development: 1990: HTML invented 1994: CSS invented to fix HTML 1995: JS invented to fix HTMLCSS 2006: Query invented to fix J 2010: AngularS invented to fix jQuery 2013: React invented to fix AngularS 2014: Vue invented to fix React Angular 2016: Angular 2 invented to fix AngularS React 2019: Svelte 3 invented to fix React, Angular, Vue 2019: React hooks invented to fix React 2020: Vue 3 invented to fix React hooks 2020: Solid invented to fix React, Angular, Svelte, Vue 2020: HTMX 1.0 invented to fix React, Angular, Svelte, Vue, Solid 2021: React suspense invented to fix React, again 2023: Svelte Runes invented to fix Svelte 2024: Query still used on 75 of websites

Starting as a Database Administrator is all sunshine and confidence. "I'll optimize these queries! I'll normalize these tables!" Fast forward a few months of 3 AM production crashes, inexplicable deadlocks, and executives asking why the database is "slow" when they're running SELECT * on 50 million rows... That majestic fox turns into a taxidermied nightmare with thousand-yard stare that's seen things no DBA should see. The database might be running fine, but your soul? That's been DROP TABLE'd without a backup.