Debugging

I’m currently teaching myself Python.

It’s proving a lot more challenging, fun, and interesting than I first thought it would be.

I was reading about how to develop better techniques for debugging my code (rather than just print-checking everything!) and I came across this quote:

“Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.”

– Brian Kernighan

This makes me feel both better and worse about my programming; it does at least highlight the importance of asking questions of people who know a lot more about a subject than you.

It also made me realise how hard it must be to be the very best at something. Roger Federer makes tennis look effortless but what must be much harder for him is improving his game. Not only are diminishing returns working against him but, also, who does the best-ever seek out when he needs the answers that will help him reach that next level? Almost no-one plays better than Federer and so he has to experiment with what is known and discover something new for himself—like an intrepid explorer discovering new territory with only a collection of incomplete maps to guide them.