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Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

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Re: Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

#21

Post by zem »

credit_guy wrote: post #3

> Realizing that I spend more time troubleshooting than I do building or doing ... That's not good. The problem with troubleshooting is that it messes up with your reward system. After you fix a hard-to-debug problem, you feel a sense of accomplishment. Which would be ok, but the problem is that this sense of accomplishment is often time higher than it should be. You go home at the end of the day thinking "well, toda…

> Soon you'll be seen by others as a car mechanic. Maybe a reliable car mechanic. But reliable car mechanics don't get paid a lot.

this argues for a messed up reward system for the company, not the engineer. all sufficiently large systems have bugs and performance issues, and adding a measure of reliability, stability, and speed is just as important as adding features.

Re: Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

#22

Post by LeifCarrotson »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #13
Cpoll wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But could you have built a new feature that would roll out to 50% of users in that same time? No.

If the impact of debugging is expected to be larger than building something new, then debug. Else, build something new.

The problem is that the real impact and the perceived value of each path are not necessarily the same.

Building new things is sexy and highly visible. It's easy to say about yourself "I built that cool new feature" or better, to promote "I might build something of incredible value". You're front-and-center with decision makers, shaping the future.

Conversely, debugging is perceived as a cost center. "I fixed that critical infrastructure that used to work with only minor interruption" or "Maybe everything will break and you'll need me to fix it" are not nearly as exciting. Worse, the best maintenance is completely invisible, fixing problems before they are felt. You're in the background, dealing with the legacy of the past.

Re: Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

#23

Post by lurk2 »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #15
sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may be leaning too far in the other direction. I'm a troubleshooter. I fix problems. I keep my head straight in a crisis. Every job I've had across 3 decades, regardless of my actual title or formal responsibilities, I'm the firefighter. People call me when they can't figure something out. People call me when something big breaks and needs to be fixed urgently. Even if I'm not an expert in the broken thin…

In fact you could easily be the guy they keep on a monthly retainer just for peace of mind.

The word retainer has an appealing mercenary quality to it. The dream is that your knowledge of an esoteric system set up in the 1980s gets you warehoused in a data closet at a mid-sized organization, where you can spend the rest of your days browsing Hacker News and watching pirated films.

Re: Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

#24

Post by fatbird »

credit_guy wrote: post #3

> Realizing that I spend more time troubleshooting than I do building or doing ... That's not good. The problem with troubleshooting is that it messes up with your reward system. After you fix a hard-to-debug problem, you feel a sense of accomplishment. Which would be ok, but the problem is that this sense of accomplishment is often time higher than it should be. You go home at the end of the day thinking "well, toda…

My skill at troubleshooting has caused me to be the goto guy in every project, which lends great credibility and opportunities for leadership. Your pride in your troubleshooting skills isn't pride in a side-quest, it's pride in having a deep understanding of how systems work in general and in the specific.

"Good troubleshooter" might not look great on a CV, but all of your coworkers naming you as the most valuable member of the team, and a natural leader, is worth more than any feature launches.

Re: Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

#25

Post by pklausler »

credit_guy wrote: post #3

> Realizing that I spend more time troubleshooting than I do building or doing ... That's not good. The problem with troubleshooting is that it messes up with your reward system. After you fix a hard-to-debug problem, you feel a sense of accomplishment. Which would be ok, but the problem is that this sense of accomplishment is often time higher than it should be. You go home at the end of the day thinking "well, toda…

Some kinds of troubleshooting are pretty important, though (e.g., medicine).

Re: Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

#26

Post by linza »

credit_guy wrote: post #3

> Realizing that I spend more time troubleshooting than I do building or doing ... That's not good. The problem with troubleshooting is that it messes up with your reward system. After you fix a hard-to-debug problem, you feel a sense of accomplishment. Which would be ok, but the problem is that this sense of accomplishment is often time higher than it should be. You go home at the end of the day thinking "well, toda…

It's even worse than that.

Making troubleshooting skills a profession in itself makes reliability a property of a specific person or team and not a property of the system. The former doesn't scale.

Re: Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

#27

Post by linza »

fatbird wrote: post #24
credit_guy wrote: post #3

> Realizing that I spend more time troubleshooting than I do building or doing ... That's not good. The problem with troubleshooting is that it messes up with your reward system. After you fix a hard-to-debug problem, you feel a sense of accomplishment. Which would be ok, but the problem is that this sense of accomplishment is often time higher than it should be. You go home at the end of the day thinking "well, toda…

My skill at troubleshooting has caused me to be the goto guy in every project, which lends great credibility and opportunities for leadership. Your pride in your troubleshooting skills isn't pride in a side-quest, it's pride in having a deep understanding of how systems work in general and in the specific. "Good troubleshooter" might not look great on a CV, but all of your coworkers naming you as the most valuable me…

The value is in leadership, and being able to avoid certain classes of bugs from appearing in the first place. Troubleshooting just happens to be the skill that allows you to gain the knowledge to lead.

Re: Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

#28

Post by K0balt »

lurk2 wrote: post #23
rokhayakebe wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact you could easily be the guy they keep on a monthly retainer just for peace of mind.

The word retainer has an appealing mercenary quality to it. The dream is that your knowledge of an esoteric system set up in the 1980s gets you warehoused in a data closet at a mid-sized organization, where you can spend the rest of your days browsing Hacker News and watching pirated films.

After 3 years the finish gets dull, but it’s still not bad. Not the worst contract I ever worked.

Re: Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

#30

Post by fatbird »

linza wrote: post #27
fatbird wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My skill at troubleshooting has caused me to be the goto guy in every project, which lends great credibility and opportunities for leadership. Your pride in your troubleshooting skills isn't pride in a side-quest, it's pride in having a deep understanding of how systems work in general and in the specific. "Good troubleshooter" might not look great on a CV, but all of your coworkers naming you as the most valuable me…

The value is in leadership, and being able to avoid certain classes of bugs from appearing in the first place. Troubleshooting just happens to be the skill that allows you to gain the knowledge to lead.

Exactly:

"I found the root cause and corrected it. It may be an issue in these other two places so we should check there as well."

"Great. How do we avoid issues like this in the future?"

"By doing X thing a different way, and ensuring that Y thing is also in place."

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