In partnership with

Harman here. Today, we’re going to talk about something really important.

A senior engineer once told me:

“95% of software engineering is Googling.”

And you know what? He was right.

Googling is an art—and that’s exactly what we’re diving into today.

WHY IT MATTERS:

Being able to Google like a software engineer isn’t just a skill—it’s a superpower. Most coding frustration comes from searching the wrong way or not knowing what to ask. Mastering this means:

• Solve problems faster: Spend minutes instead of hours stuck on bugs.

• Learn smarter: Each search teaches you best practices and patterns.

• Build confidence: You stop feeling stuck and start feeling in control.

• Level up your career: Efficient problem-solving is what separates juniors from pros.

In short, knowing how to search effectively makes you a faster, smarter, and more confident developer.

STEPS:

1. Describe the problem, not your emotions

Bad search: “Why is my stopwatch not working I feel stuck in JavaScript”

Good search: “JavaScript setInterval not updating DOM”

2. Include the tool + error + goal

Structure it like this:

[language/framework] + [what you tried] + [error/symptom]

Examples:

• javascript setinterval increment variable

• javascript clearinterval example

• javascript TypeError cannot set property textContent of null

3. Look for these sources first

• MDN (Mozilla Developer Network) → the Bible of web dev.

• Stack Overflow → specific Q&A.

• GeeksforGeeks / W3Schools → quick syntax reminders (but don’t just copy).

4. Don’t copy blindly — test in pieces

Let’s say you Googled javascript setInterval example and saw this:

setInterval(function() {
  console.log("Hello");
}, 1000);

Instead of pasting into your stopwatch directly, test it in a blank file. Make sure you understand just that part. Then plug it into your project.

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STEPS:

5. When stuck, change your angle

If “stopwatch” results are confusing, search the simpler problem:

• Instead of: javascript stopwatch project

• Try: javascript increment counter every second

You’ll get much smaller, bite-sized examples.

🧠 Pro Developer Trick: "Rubber Duck Debugging"

When you get stuck:

1. Write out: “I want X, I tried Y, I expected Z, I got W.”

2. Use that as your Google query.

Example:
“I want to update a number on screen every second. I tried setInterval but it doesn’t change my HTML.”

Search that, and boom → you’ll find textContent examples.

⚡ Brutal but real:
If you master Googling, you’ll never be stuck for more than 20–30 minutes. That’s the only difference between a beginner and a pro.

🏋️ Google Practice Exercise

Scenario:
You wrote:

const timer = document.getElementById('timer');
timer.textContent = 0;

But the console says:

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set properties of null (setting 'textContent')

👉 What would you Google?

give me reply to this email on how you approached to solve this problem