It's not a bug, it's a mirror

Fri Jul 11 2025 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) - by Ricardo Guzman

F*ck, another error again. What is it now?

This was my reaction, the one that brought anger, frustration, and desperation after hitting the 15th error of the day while learning to code.

It’s a familiar feeling, isn’t it?

That realization that you’re dealing with something that will force you to learn, right now, if you want to move forward.

It means diving into documentation, facing those fundamental concepts you’ve been trying to avoid, and confronting the fact that you’re stuck.

You have two options:

1. Give up.

2. Do what’s needed, solve the damn thing, and come out the other side with more knowledge and experience.

I used to see programming as just talking to a computer. Tell it what to do, and it does it. Simple. But I was missing the most important part of the conversation.

It’s Not the Computer You’re Talking To

I’m a guy that loves philosophy.

I see the world as driven by deeper principles, the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’. I’m also a Christian, and I’ve always been fascinated by how much our own conscience shapes everything we do.

For a long time, I was skipping that part of myself when I sat down to code.

I was treating it as a sterile, technical task, completely separate from how I saw the world.

Then it hit me. The frustration, the fight, the cycle we all go through as devs:

Build > Test > Fix > Test > Fix > Test > Build More

This isn’t just a workflow. It’s a mirror.

I realized that programming is a pressurized environment that reveals exactly how you behave in life.

Think about it. You’re not just “finding a bug.”

You’re facing a failure. Your logic was wrong. You did something wrong. And that failure means you have to get better, smarter, and even stronger, right now.

This is where it gets real. You have to choose. Give up, or get better.

You have to push into the unknown, navigate the uncertainty, find answers in a sea of information, and make a choice on the path forward.

All while feeling a storm of emotions: anger, frustration, desperation, weakness, and exhaustion.

All of this for a bug? For an error?

No. It’s for something much more.

You’re overcoming. You’re fighting. You’re getting better. You’re resisting.

Resisting what? Fighting who?

You’re resisting the temptation to give up.

You’re fighting the pull to take the easy route, to build something mediocre, or to not build it at all.

You’re fighting the natural pull that tells you to shrink from uncertainty and pressure.

The Beauty of the Fight

That is the raw beauty of programming if you choose to see it.

With the right mindset, you’re never “just fixing bugs.”

You are forging character. You are becoming a person who gets sh*t done, no matter the circumstances, no matter the context.

You’re proving to yourself that you can face a problem, stare it down, and win.

So the next time an error flashes across your screen, remember what it’s really asking you.

Don’t be mediocre under pressure. Excel under it.