Hypothesis-Driven Debugging

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0500

Debugging by coincidence is making changes until the symptom disappears. The fix “works” in the sense that the error message goes away. Nobody knows the root cause. Two months later the same bug resurfaces in a different shape, and nobody knows why, because nobody ever understood why the first time.

Form a falsifiable hypothesis before you touch code instead: “I believe the bug is in X because Y. If I’m right, evidence Z should be there. If I’m wrong, evidence W should be there instead.” It’s the scientific method applied to debugging, and most engineers skip it in favor of “let me try this and see.”

Debugging on rjrowland

Hypothesis-Driven Debugging