Appreciation post: I had to pick between two ways to ask for help on a tricky coding problem

I was stuck on a bug for two days, trying to fix a login error. My choices were to keep grinding alone or to post the full code snippet on a forum. I posted it, and someone from Chicago spotted the issue in 20 minutes. It was a simple typo in a variable name I kept missing. What's your rule for when to stop trying solo and just ask?

3 comments

3 Comments

noahchen3mo ago

Two days on a login error sounds like my kind of luck. My rule is when I've checked the same line ten times and start arguing with inanimate objects, it's time to ask. That second pair of eyes catches what your brain just filters out. How long do you let yourself spin your wheels before calling for help?

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foster.wade2mo ago

You got a good rule there, @noahchen. For me, it's usually around the hour mark. If I have stared at the same thing for sixty minutes and my brain starts looping, that's my cutoff. Anything past that and you are just burning time and getting frustrated. I find that the second pair of eyes thing is really true. They see what you have looked past because you are too close to the problem. For a login error specifically, I would probably raise my hand even sooner, maybe thirty minutes, because those can be so weird with caching or session stuff. Your mileage may vary, but waiting two days sounds like the kind of patience I don't have.

nathan_foster603mo ago

Arguing with your keyboard is a normal debugging step though. Sometimes you just need to walk away for an hour. Coming back fresh solves it more often than not. Two days is a lot, but maybe the answer is in the docs you skimmed.