That Time I Spent Hours Fixing a Problem I Created Myself
by Arif Ikhsanudin, Backend Developer
We’ve all been there: staring at the screen, exhausted, only to realize we’re the reason the system broke. Here’s my story of self-inflicted chaos.
The “Simple” Change
It started with what I thought was a minor tweak.
- Just a small refactor.
- Code looked cleaner.
- Tests passed locally.
I pushed it to staging, feeling proud. Famous last words.
The Mystery Bug Appears
Within minutes, reports started rolling in:
- API endpoints returning errors.
- Some users couldn’t log in.
- Logs full of exceptions I didn’t recognize.
My stomach sank. I hadn’t changed much—or so I thought.
Hours of Investigation
I dove into debugging mode:
- Checked recent commits.
- Reverted caches and environment configs.
- Tested edge cases repeatedly.
Nothing seemed to fix it. My confidence was crumbling. The problem felt like an unsolvable puzzle.
The Moment of Truth
After hours of frustration, I retraced every step slowly. And then I saw it:
- A tiny variable name typo in the refactor.
- That one small mistake caused the entire feature to break.
All that panic and effort—caused by me. Classic.
Lessons Learned the Hard Way
Spending hours fixing a self-made problem taught me:
- Double-check your changes. Even small tweaks can ripple.
- Use automated tests. They catch the typos you overlook.
- Take a breath before panicking. Often, the problem is simpler than it seems.
- Document carefully. Refactors should be easy to trace back.
Final Thoughts
Fixing a problem you created yourself is humbling, exhausting, and educational all at once.
Next time I break something: I’ll blame the code less, and check my own changes more. It’s faster, and honestly, less painful.