Debugging other people's code

In my personal projects, debugging is one of the least fun activities. It's tedious, and generally only necessary because something isn't working the way it should -- so that's frustrating.

But for whatever reason, debugging someone else's problem brings me a lot of enjoyment. It feels more like detective work, trying to get to the bottom of a mystery that's plaguing a developer or worse, users. The payoff is also somewhat greater, because not only do you get the satisfaction of solving a problem, you get the feeling that you helped someone else.

At my current place of employment, I've fixed numerous bugs, including some rather hairy and elusive ones. Spending several days trying to get to the root cause of a crash can certainly be frustrating, but I feel much more motivated to do so, knowing that it's affecting a lot of people and will bring a lot of relief once it's finally solved. Contrast that with spending several days on a crash in my own game that noone has ever seen or played, where the only person who will be glad it's fixed is me. It's pretty astounding the amount of work and dedication a lot of solo devs must have.

Another aspect with debugging other people's code is that you always learn something new, either about the codebase you're working on, debugging techniques, or the people you work with. And you often get to share what you've learned, so everyone can benefit from it and grow to be better developers.

While I would never want to stop writing code of my own, there is something to be said about maintaining other people's code. I think it's something everyone should do from time to time and is an activity worthy of praise. If you ever run out of motivation on whatever it is you're working on, consider reaching out to someone else and helping them solve their problems. You may find it motivating when you return to your work, and can always ask for someone to return the favor the next time you're stuck.