Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would estimate print debugging is usually twice the work for 30% of the effectiveness of step debugging. It's the screwdriver to step debugging's drill. Fundamental and absolutely necessary sometimes but not the first tool you should be reaching for unless there's a specific reason.
The specific reason I reach for print debugging first is it works literally everywhere across all technology stacks. I regularly work with different projects written in different languages. Printing works across all of them and the logs are easy to aggregate across different parts of the stack (microservices or other service composition patterns) giving you a broader range of data than you typically get from a step d…
Step debuggers don't "create Heisenbugs", you're just much more likely to notice race conditions while step debugging than print debugging. If anything, print debugging creates more bugs because you're altering the code you're trying to test by definition.