Today I found and fixed a really nasty bug, one that was difficult to find.
Before me, 4 different people were contacted. These people were internal employee of the company having the bug, while I was an outside consultant.
Now, if this seems like I’m bragging, fear not, I hate this.
I hate this because I see how much a simple situation could have been already fixed in a matter of time.
Let’s rewind for a second.
4 different people, employees. No one helped. All commented giving “generic” directions.
I was asked to help, I did it. They didn’t want me to get access to the source, to the machine having the problem, not without the paperwork.
Ok I say, give me the paperwork. They explain to me the process of obtaining the papers to sign, but they don’t give me that paper.
I find a way around it to test it so that I (a consultant) help them and in the end I get to find the bug, understand the reason why it happens, and fix it.
Nice little story, isn’t it. But the sad truth is that anyone could’ve found the line and the object that caused the bug, if only they spent time analyzing using some kind of basic scientific method + some exlusions to reduce the variables.
What they might have not been able to find is the reason, but the culprit? It was in plain sight.
But no, an entire company, with 100 skilled people couldn’t do it.
I always felt like we, as humans, were meant to go against the system, to fight for all the situations where we were caged, abused, abandoned.
But it’s not the system fault. We are the fault.
We are afraid to make mistakes, to lose. We want to show off, to be in the rules.
We are the system.
And it’s not the system’s fault.