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Ask HN: How to Become Proficient at Troubleshooting

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Ask HN: How to Become Proficient at Troubleshooting

#1
Hey everyone,

My first ask HN. I have worked in tech for over 20 years. One thing I am truly awful about is troubleshooting. Sometimes its obvious, ie the log or error message tells you what you need to do. Otherwise, Yes, I usually get there in the end but it's a long, drawn out process.

I am best at designing and implementing, not troubleshooting.

It's not that I don't understand the products I use every day. It's just my ASD (Autism) afflicted mind doesn't follow norms and paths (for example, the chop method of deduction) but jump from a to b, to f, to p, to b. Sometimes a semi-obvious fix can take me days to get there.

For example, a coworker fixed a semi obvious issue in twenty minutes today that took me hours and never got sorted because, well, I am not good at troubleshooting. It is something that does hold me back and need to try and fix.

How can one learn to become good at troubleshooting, if it learnable?