When I took CS101, my professor shared a well-known truth: “For every hour you spend coding, expect to spend three hours debugging.” While I never officially timed it, I can confidently say that the ratio often feels closer to five… However, debugging doesn’t have to be an endless struggle. With a clear mind and a more organized approach, it can be surprisingly efficient.
Today I faced a frustrating issue when checking my blog: the changes I pushed earlier never updated. I usually use my local server for demos before pushing updates to the cloud, so I rarely check the live site. Therefore, when I finally did check, I discovered the changes hadn’t been updated since January 30th.
This triggered a lengthy debugging session. This has to switch from the usual minimal terminal-markdown setup to using the full VSCode interface. I created HTML scripts, moved folders, deleted folders, pushed changes, waited, and refreshed—repeating this process multiple, multiple irritating times. Eventually, the solution became clear: the issue was simply outdated versions… After an hour of grinding here are some lessons learned:
- Updates are often the simplest fix for bugs.
- Properly search for solutions, and if possible, identify and understand the root cause of the issue before making changes
- Make one change at a time and track it carefully before moving on to the next.
And that’s it. Debugging can be less frustrating with a methodical and organized approach. And happy Valentine’s day.