The other day I was watching this Netflix series, Man Vs Bee. I was laughing, thinking how stupid the main character is.
Slowly it hit me. I realized that we do similar stupid stuff while programming.
For those who haven’t seen the series yet. Lead actor(Rowan) is jobless for some time and finally finds a job as House Sitter. He is responsible to look after a house which is entirely automated and modern.
Writing down the list of mistakes that Rowan did and even we do while fixing bugs.
No Documentation
There was a house manual that had all the instructions and all the passcode(to open rooms). But Rowan mistakenly burns the manual and now he is clueless and struggling to do anything.
This is why we should maintain documentation for the code we write. So that when someone is trying to fix any bug, they should know where to find it first. And also should understand the intentions behind that code piece.
Decorate Bug
There is a scene where Rowan breaks an artistic statue. Then he uses gum to fix the head of the statue so that it doesn't look broken anymore.
Similarly many times rather than fixing the bug, we decorate it, so that the bug is not visible but it still exists.
Sooner or later this bug will get exposed, instead of temporarily decorating we should find a way to fix it permanently.
Burn Application
Rowan tries so many ways to kill the Bee, but he fails every time. He gets frustrated and burns the whole house to kill that annoying Bee.
There are times when we get frustrated too and in the quest to solve that bug, we try too many things and we make changes in too many places, without realizing that while fixing one bug we are creating many other bugs. We are technically burning down the whole application.
Bomb the Production
Towards the end of the series, Rowan tried to make a bomb all by himself. So that he could bomb the pet house where the Bee got stuck.
He did bomb the pet house but even then Bee could escape.
Does this ring any bell?
This is something we have done too. Many times we fix the bug locally and send it to production directly without properly testing it in any staging environments. Later we find that the bug is still existing.
Solve Everything
There is a scene at the end when Rowan realizes that there is no point in killing the Bee. He makes peace with the existence of the Bee. And rather than getting annoyed, he cherishes the present.
Some bugs require overwhelming changes to fix it. Think and reason out whether it is worth the effort or not. If it is not worthy enough then make peace with the bug.
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