The Scientific Method of Troubleshooting

This version of the talk was presented at Distill 2014 and GoGaRuCo 2014.

Transcript

1. The Scientific Method of Troubleshooting
2. @blithe
3. Big Nerd Ranch Atlanta, Georgia
4. Scientist
5. PhD in Physical Chemistry
6. Physics
7. Chemistry
8. 6 Years!
9. Experiments
10. Scientific Method
11. Developer < >
12. StackOverflow
13. Problem solved?
14. Learn anything?
15. Most Important Part
16. Scientific Method
17. Set of Techniques For Acquiring Knowledge
18. Methodical
19. Systematic
20. “Has anyone seen string interpolation fail?”
21. Define the Problem 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
22. Expected behavior? ! ! !
23. Expected behavior? ! Actual behavior? !
24. Expected behavior? ! Actual behavior? ! Criteria for success?
25. Do Your Research 3 4 5 6 7 Define 2
26. Know your environment
27. Read the literature
28. Discussions
29. Make it fail!
30. Establish a Hypothesis 5 6 7 Define Research 4 3
31. Design the Experiment 6 7 Define Research Hypothesis 5 4
32. Divide and conquer!
33. Limit the variables
34. Try something weird
36. Hierarchy of Blame
37. Gather Data 6 7 Define Research Hypothesis Experiment 5
38. Current status?
39. Read the error message!
40. Analyze Your Results 7 Define Research Data Hypothesis Experiment 6
41. Problem solved? ! Learn anything?
42. Understand the Why
43. Future Experiments
44. Embrace the Success
45. Keep a Good Lab Notebook Define Research Data Hypothesis Experiment Analyze 7
47. You won’t remember
48. Logs aren’t enough
49. Commit Messages
50. Update the Docs
51. Contribute
53. Share the Knowledge
54. ! Questions? Thanks! @blithe