Debugging AI Greatsword
When subtlety fails, bisect the kingdom
The Debugging Greatsword is what happens when brute force meets AI-assisted debugging. Instead of understanding the bug, you increase logging until the bug retreats in terror. Instead of tracing the root cause, you bisect through symptoms with a model that can generate hypotheses faster than you can verify them. Some bugs get fixed by eliminating the features they lived in.
Symptom
Log files growing faster than the codebase. Bugs 'fixed' by removing the code that triggered them. Root causes sought by chopping through symptoms with AI-generated hypotheses. Production grepped in real time by heroes who should be sleeping.
Why It Matters
The Greatsword feels productive because it generates visible activity. Logs increase. Commits land. Bugs disappear. But the bugs don't disappear because they're fixed — they disappear because the code around them was removed. The codebase shrinks in capability while growing in confidence.
What the Chapter Gives You
How to spot brute-force debugging disguised as thoroughness, why AI-generated hypotheses need verification before action, and the debugging practices that combine model speed with human judgment.
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