On Sun, 17 Jul 2016 08:34:01 -0700, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Assumption is the mother of all screwups. If it helps, I think everyone
has the same problems with bad assumptions. It's our way of simplifying
our lives. Our brains are pre-programmed to look for patterns and
repetitions, so we generalize based on the available but usually
insufficient evidence. Don't fight it. Assumption and generalization
work well if properly used.

I wouldn't have minded so much, but a while ago we had a thread on the
golden rules of troubleshooting and my contribution was, of all things,
"assume nothing" (!)

I could go on forever on how I do troubleshooting. However much of it
is more intuitive than logical. That's guaranteed to produce more
confusion than enlightenment, so go with your first guess. It's usually
right.

So it's more of an art than a science? I'm not a professional technician
so I don't do these sort of things on a daily basis. Consequently my
reasoning skills are nowhere near as strong and well-developed as someone
who's fully immersed in the business.