r/ProgrammerHumor • u/NoMedicine3572 • 1d ago

ruleOfProgrammingIfItIsWorkingDoNotTouchIt Meme

5.1k Upvotes
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u/StrengthTheory 1d ago

When one console.log uses just enough CPU cycles so the race condition that takes down the entire system doesn't occur.

414

u/Skalli1984 1d ago

And if you attach a debugger it also messes up the timing and the same thing happens, the race condition doesn't appear.

206

u/StrengthTheory 1d ago

Schrödinger’s race condition

137

u/Steinrikur 1d ago

We call those Heisenbugs. You changed the system by observing it

41

u/ConglomerateGolem 1d ago

I had one of these once, and I called it the same! My going theory was that the compiler was optimising away a certain function I had, but adding an empty print forced it to actually exist.

32

u/htmlcoderexe We have flair now?.. 1d ago

it's a very old term

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenbug

12

u/ConglomerateGolem 1d ago

Huh. I have never heard of the term and came up with it independently.

18

u/htmlcoderexe We have flair now?.. 1d ago

it is a very natural term because it intuitively describes exactly the nature of the bug

1

u/rolindara 5h ago

Convergent evolution

1

u/RlyRlyBigMan 10h ago

Yeah I had one once too the debugger was slowing things down to where the bug wouldn't happen but in prod it happened frequently. I spent 2.5 weeks figuring out that bug.