To wrap up my "Bug Hunts" series, I thought it worthwhile to quickly reflect on what made these particular bugs so special.
In the series I posted about five bugs:
- The Case of the Errant DMA
- The Case of the Replayed Queue
- The Case of the Bloated Firmware
- The Case of the Deadlocked Queues
- The Case of the Corrupted Cache Line
Since these five represent only a small subset of all the bugs that I have diagnosed during my career I have to ask myself - what makes these bugs so special?
To me, the common thread among them is that their resolution involved a leap of thought based on skill, imagination, concentration, and an intuitive understanding of the associated technologies. In each case the answer was not self-evident from the information available and became clear only after deep thought produced an incredibly rewarding "ah-ha" moment. The short-term elation from these "ah-ha" moments are one reason why these bugs hold a special place in my memories.
However, I think the deeper answer to my question is that these bugs were milestone events that, to varying degrees, demonstrated and validated the skills that I had worked hard to acquire. The longer-term feeling of "mastery" and confidence produced by these moments were the reward required to make my past efforts satisfying and motivate further developing my skills.
In many ways, this conclusion correlates well with Malcom Gladwell's comments on satisfying work in his book Outliers. From page 49:
Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.
The lesson that I draw from this reflection is that it is important to periodically seek out validating experiences to demonstrate acquired skill, obtain satisfaction, and refuel a continuous self-development effort.
