PusscatIf I come to inspect your work, you need a reason for everything you've done. Understand it.
If you can, have 2 or 3 solid reasons why you think something is the way it is.
HalvarFlake@PrincessOfCats this is actually one of my biggest pet peeves when people debug in an unstructured manber. "Perhaps it is XYZ" - "Can you walk me through a chain of arguments that would lead from XYZ to what we are seeing?" - "Uhhhh..."
Sean Heelan@HalvarFlake @PrincessOfCats Getting students out of that habit is probably the most valuable takeaway from early-stage RE/auditing training IMO. When teaching I use a rubric system based on one I came across for solving math puzzles in my teens, which emphasises explicitly documenting a chain of observations, deductions, validated conclusions and uncertainties. It's still the best way I've come across to teach critical evaluation of one's own deductive process.
@PrincessOfCats @HalvarFlake Probably the most useful RE book I've ever read https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0201102382/ ;)
Mark C.@seanhn @PrincessOfCats @HalvarFlake The issue I have with this, esp. in light of how badly mathematics is presented even at university level, is that it is easy to lose sight of the real goal - self-reflection or 'monitoring'. You want to ensure solid reasoning in such a way that you encourage *insight*. That's what we're after (well, what I'm really after :P )
Valsmith@HalvarFlake @PrincessOfCats I'm really bad/good at this. People say I use the force when I RE. Often I'll just let the program advance slowly while watching and when it feels right I say HERE and pause execution. It's almost always right. Then I go back and prove why. Sometimes I have to get a friend with more formal education to help me prove it which is embarrassing but true.
@Valsmith @HalvarFlake I also work with a lot of experience and intuition to save time when finding things but the important thing is that once you have a hunch you must prove it.
Magick/intuition is an aid to speed but not proof itself.