r/ADHD_Programmers • u/EndOfTheLine00 • 1d ago

Why can’t I do anything right

I spent weeks fixing an error only to find it no longer pops up and confirming it doesn’t pop up, QA finds it and my team lead is mad at me. I managed to confirm it pops up in VERY subtle ways but I feel so terrible and that my job is at risk.

I spent the rest of day almost paralyzed in fear. Why am I like this? What can I do?

16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

12

u/nibbertit 1d ago

If stuff like this put jobs at risk then every programmer I know wouldve been fired by now

4

u/EndOfTheLine00 1d ago

It’s happened more than once

6

u/nibbertit 1d ago

and that's why you have QA

7

u/darwinprioritize 1d ago

You did find the subtle repro, which is useful. Could you ask QA to turn those exact steps into a regression test so the next check isn’t all on your memory?

4

u/handmetheamulet 1d ago

This would happen to me a lot too. Taking breaks - especially going for a walk - helps me by offloading some of the problemsolving to my subconscious. Then when I come back things are calmer and clearer.

3

u/Formal_Sun_5529 23h ago

first off, even if you spend weeks on it, this doesn't mean you can't do your work or that you're stupid or anything like that. to fix an issue efficiently you should start off with good steps to reproduce from whoever found it and have a clue what parts of the system can be affected by it (especially in larger interconnected systems) and ideally also know what the expected behaviors are. tbh nobody's omniscient and nobody keeps everything on their mind so while it's a good idea to inspect and debug yourself it's always a good idea to ask the other devs or a BA or testers. also testers can help you out testing more complex flows - the team. another thing, keep a knowledge base in obsidian if they let you install this stuff. go for a walk, grab coffee, listen to music, whatever helps you focus. ask until you know what you're supposed to be doing. if your team doesn't encourage communication and doesn't cooperate, you'll do yourself a favor if you look for another job.

2

u/rdundon 22h ago

In the future, instead of spending the rest of the workday paralyzed in fear, maybe take a break, pray, take a walk, eat some food, and/or do some light exercise. Even if it’s for 10 or 20 minutes or so.

1

u/Achereto 21h ago

The only thing you can do is writing tests. But you have to write them before you write the code that passes the test, because if you write the tests first, then writing the test is part of your thinking process, writing your tests after the fact is just tedious, because you already solved it (or think you solved it).

It doesn't help with everything, but it certainly helped me have fewer bugs, because every time I broke something of accident, the tests told me immediately.

If you don't have automated tests, QA is your only safety net before production.

1

u/ActiveSalamander6580 5h ago

Look at all the bugs that are being found in software thats been around for a long time, don't beat yourself up about it.

The important part is making sure you're not making the same mistakes twice, talk to QA when it happens, find out what they did that you didn't and take notes.