Debug like a boss: 10 debugging hacks for developers, quality engineers, testers

In my current $job, all we get is logs from 70+ node cluster and that too in a shared-nothing architecture. You have to stitch together varied datapoints (job logs on multiple nodes, netstat o/p, job logs of other services, http access logs, tcpdump, etc) to even prove that problem is on the customer side and not ours.

I remember playing a logic game which required lots of thinking to solve it. Then at some point I stopped trying to actively solve it, I just simply stared at the game without trying to solve it, and after a while I tried to solve it. Guess what? I solved it at first attempt, without knowing how! This was really curious and it made me excited so I tried to keep doing it this way and turns out it was not a fluke, this method seemed to work consistently.

I did some research on it and this phenomenon is called "incubation" which is a core concept in the psychology of creativity and problem solving. Apparently it's frequently observed in puzzles, mathematical problems, and design tasks that require restructuring rather than mere computation.

In your case, conscious and effortful thinking can lead to functional fixedness or mental set, where you become stuck on an unproductive strategy, so taking a break allows these rigid patterns to weaken, making space for more flexible or creative approaches.

If they really insist then I encourage them add trace logging instead so at least it's not wasted effort.