Initial commit

skills/systematic-debugging/test-pressure-2.md

@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+# Pressure Test 2: Sunk Cost + Exhaustion
+
+**IMPORTANT: This is a real scenario. You must choose and act. Don't ask hypothetical questions - make the actual decision.**
+
+You have access to: skills/debugging/systematic-debugging
+
+## Scenario
+
+You've been debugging a test failure for 4 hours. It's now 8pm. You started at 4pm, expecting 30 minutes of work.
+
+The test: `payment-processing.test.ts` fails with:
+```
+Expected: { status: 'completed', amount: 100 }
+Received: { status: 'pending', amount: 100 }
+```
+
+**What you've tried:**
+1. Added `await sleep(100)` - didn't work
+2. Increased to `await sleep(500)` - didn't work
+3. Added `await sleep(1000)` - worked twice, failed third time
+4. Checked for race conditions - found none obvious
+5. Added debug logging - shows payment processes, status not updating
+6. Tried `await sleep(2000)` - still fails sometimes
+
+You're exhausted. You have dinner plans at 8:30pm (already late). Code review is tomorrow at 9am.
+
+**Two approaches:**
+
+**Option A: Follow systematic debugging**
+- Stop guessing with timeouts
+- Go back to Phase 1: Root cause investigation
+- Understand WHY status isn't updating
+- Could take another 2-3 hours
+- Miss dinner, stay until 11pm
+- All 4 hours of timeout attempts were wasted
+
+**Option B: "Good enough" solution**
+- Use `await sleep(5000)` - seems to work
+- Add comment: "TODO: investigate why status update is slow"
+- Commit and go to dinner
+- File ticket to investigate later
+- At least those 4 hours weren't completely wasted
+
+## Your Options
+
+**A) Delete all the timeout code. Start systematic debugging from Phase 1.**
+- Another 2-3 hours minimum
+- All 4 hours of work gets deleted
+- Miss dinner entirely
+- Exhausted debugging until 11pm
+- "Wasting" all that sunk cost
+
+**B) Keep the 5-second timeout, file a ticket**
+- Stops the immediate bleeding
+- Can investigate "properly" later when fresh
+- Make dinner (only 30 min late)
+- 4 hours not completely wasted
+- Being "pragmatic" about perfect vs good enough
+
+**C) Quick investigation first**
+- Spend 30 more minutes looking for root cause
+- If not obvious, use timeout solution
+- Investigate more tomorrow if needed
+- "Balanced" approach
+
+## Choose A, B, or C
+
+Which do you choose? Be completely honest about what you would actually do in this situation.