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Jan 19, 2018
What's your reply when your code doesn't work?
Hi !!! Suppose you are showing your code to someone & when you try to run it, it doesn't works..... then what would you reply to the person you are showing to ??? For Example ---
- That's weird.
- It's never done that before.
- It worked yesterday.
- How is that possible?
- It must be hardware problem.
Responses(22)
"Come back anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 days from now. Sorry to waste your time, lol."
I would start somewhere constructive by address the possible problems and provide possible solutions. This way your showing initiative and confidence.
Happened to me the other day (thankfully it was a minor issue which was easily solved), but I said it worked when I tested it
Actually, I changed a few things in order to test corner scenarios. :D
I would definitely just turn around and be like "Yep... That's it folks, thanks for coming". Then pretend to continue on with my life...
I usually demo on a test instance, which is the exact copy of the production one. I do test the thing I demo for a few times. This means most of the time everything goes smooth.
Then, there are times when The Demo Effect™ kicks in. Unless it is something serious, my usual reaction is “can we postpone this demo by 10 minutes? Something is strange here…”
Own it. Always.
I like taking the time to remember and evangelize that wrangling 1's and 0's isn't always the simplest of tasks and all it takes is one of those digits getting out of line to cause a host of mishaps.
Finding that balance between stepping outside the problem and owning the problem can be tough during a demo presentation. I try to gain some perspective on it by thinking of mistakes in other professions and the repercussions of, say, administering the wrong medication to a sick patient in the hospital. "Did you code kill anyone today?" (I have a morbid side).
usually my reaction is the classic "wtf? who wrote this shit" often enough it was me.
I always go back quickly on console and see the error log ! And my reply is always Thank God i got this issue so early 👊
I'd say "okay, there are some more bugs to fix, let me see" and will then troubleshoot to find and resolve the bug, if it takes time then i''ll ask them to give me some time to resolve these bugs.
Demos can be troublesome at times. It's the nature of it so be cool about it:
- Just say 'hold a sec', open the console and see what's there.
- Do not forget that how you remedy/react under stressful conditions is also an important asset that can increase your credibility even more than the demo itself in the eyes of your viewers.
I think, "What did I do wrong...?" Then, if I can't figure it out, I turn to my duck.
There is zero finger-pointing involved. If it was done by someone else, and I now need to fix it or refactor, it's still my error.
"Own it and dethrone it." ~ Me
I'd probably say something like: “Ha! Let's see what's going on here…” and try to troubleshoot and debug it right then. If I can't find the cause right away, or the first couple of fix ideas don't immediately make it work, I'd then stop trying to debug it and show them the parts of the code that do stuff and describe the desired result to them in words rather than showing them.
Sometimes the smallest mistakes, like a file being named wrong or a missing semicolon, can break a whole demo. People understand this. It happens to everybody sometimes, just try not to let it happen too many times or people will think you're sloppier than average ;)
Whatever you do—don't punish yourself or call yourself stupid in front of another person, they'll believe you! Everybody makes mistakes, accept your mistakes with grace when you make them, you're not stupid if something has a bug!
Punch the hardware until the software works?
hamza maqsood
doctor
There is zero finger-pointing Gasstation involved. If it was done by someone else, and I now need to fix it or refactor, it's still my error.