When I pitched my book Debugging to the publisher, I pitched it as one of those timeless books that will still be valuable in 20 years. (I didn’t call it beautiful — I used words like valuable and fun to read.) It was published in 2002 and still sells well, and is a textbook for several college-level programming courses.

The key to avoiding the obsolescence factor is to make it universal enough to be useful in spite of technology advances. So I extracted the essence of what good debuggers do, and applied these rules to all kinds of debugging situations, including software, hardware, plumbing, cars, and human bodies.

On my URL debuggingrules.com, I have reviews, a pointer to Amazon if you want to buy it (only $16, not $50), and a fun poster to put up on your wall to remind you when the going gets tough.