The Debugging Framework That Finds Every Bug in Under 30 Minutes

I used to debug by staring at code and hoping the answer would appear. Sometimes it did. Usually it didn't. Then a principal engineer taught me a systematic debugging framework. Not "add more console.logs." An actual methodology. Since adopting it, I can't remember a bug that took me more than 30 minutes to isolate — even in systems I don't own. The Framework: REDUCE R eproduce → E xamine → D ivide → U nderstand → C hange → E valuate Step 1: Reproduce (5 minutes max) If you can't reproduce it, you can't fix it. Period. The goal: find the minimal set of steps that triggers the bug. Not "the user was doing stuff and it broke." This: 1. Create a new user with email "test@test.com" 2. Add item to cart 3. Click checkout 4. Enter same email "test@test.com" in billing 5. BUG: "Account already exists" error on payment page If you can't reproduce locally: Check environment differences. 90% of "can't reproduce" bugs are caused by: Different data (production has edge cases local doesn't) Differen