🧠 How to Know You Have JavaScript Issues (Before Your Users Riot)
JavaScript is sneaky. Everything looks fine... until it explodes at runtime 💥. Here's how to spot the red flags early and fix them before they become chaos.
1. 🚨 Your Console Looks Like a Horror Movie
// Example: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined
🧠 If you're seeing red messages in the console — trust me — you're doing something wrong. Debug it before pushing to production.
2. 🧩 Things Only Work Sometimes (aka The Schrodinger Bug)
Random button clicks work sometimes, or a function behaves weirdly depending on what page you're on?
if (user = "admin") { // oops, assignment instead of comparison!
🧠 If your app is haunted, check your conditions and scope handling.
3. 🦥 Page Loads Are Suspiciously Slow
Using too many await
calls or heavy computations in the main thread?
await getUserData(); await getPosts(); await getNotifications(); // Sluggish mess
🧠 Time to learn about Promise.all()
and non-blocking rendering.
4. 🧟♂️ Memory Leaks and Dead Listeners
When your browser tab eats 2GB RAM and your PC starts heating up...
window.addEventListener("resize", myHandler); // added 100x, never removed
🧠 Clean up your listeners and intervals with .removeEventListener()
or clearInterval()
.
5. 🥴 You Can’t Reproduce the Bug… But the User Can
That one user says "it crashes every time", but everything's perfect for you.
🧠 This usually means:
- You rely on user-specific data
- You make assumptions (e.g., assuming
localStorage
always exists) - Your code is not cross-browser compatible
6. 📦 You Forgot to Import Something (Or Imported It Wrong)
ReferenceError: React is not defined
🧠 Make sure your imports are correct, and you're not mixing ESM and CommonJS without knowing what you're doing.
7. 🔄 Infinite Loops or Rerenders
useEffect(() => { fetchData(); }, [data]); // oops, data changes on every render
🧠 Be careful with dependencies in React hooks. Also... don’t forget to use a return function for cleanup!
✅ Conclusion: Red Flags to Watch For
- Red console errors
- Memory spikes
- Weird re-renders
- Random "undefined is not a function"
- Users reporting strange stuff you can't reproduce
🔍 Use tools like:
- Chrome DevTools
- ESLint
- Lighthouse
- TypeScript (it yells at you before runtime)
Stay paranoid. Stay bug-free. 🐞💻
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