I was stuck on a bug for two hours until my buddy at the coffee shop pointed out my typo

I was working on a simple Python script at the local library yesterday, trying to make a list of numbers. I kept getting an error and couldn't figure out why. My friend Sam, who codes too, looked over my shoulder and spotted I'd written 'apend' instead of 'append'. It was such a tiny mistake but it totally blocked me. Has anyone else had a simple typo waste a bunch of their time?

2 comments

2 Comments

paul879h ago

Ugh, the worst is when you're searching for some deep logic flaw and it's literally just spelling. My brain refuses to see the wrong letters after staring at it for an hour.

charles7063h ago

Ever think you're too careful to make those kinds of mistakes? I sure did. Paul87 is right, your eyes just stop seeing the problem after a while. I had a similar thing with a missing quote that cost me a whole morning, and it really humbled me. Now I step away for ten minutes when I'm stuck, and it often jumps right out at me.