Solving problems through collaborative debugging

I decided to use kubernetes for a project of mine, not really a devops guy but I wanted to try things out. Everything went (somewhat) smoothly but for whatever reason, 6 months in, my SSL certificated expired and I had no idea how to renew it.

I think it goes without saying but that day I was stressfully consuming every possible resource available through google. At the end of the day I did find what I was looking for... after roughly 6-8 hours.

This was just me using complex tech with a steep learning curve while being VERY inexperienced. But this "google hell" pattern has repeated a few times before in my programming journey and during these times I am always thinking "I wish I could just get someone to solve this for me".

Normally I would ask a co-worker / friend to debug with me if they are available but now days asynchronous working / freelancing is so common that it's hard to find people if you are working solo.

Due to this I took initiative and started reaching out to people on twitter, opening my DMs for any React / Django related questions and built this platform where I (and soon people with other expertise) answer questions and help people solve bugs https://questions.troosh.app

For you guys that usually work solo how do you combat this? How often do you find yourself in these situations? And how effective do you think collaborative debugging is vs solo debugging?

Best tips from my end:

1. Debugging with someone else to brainstorm / bounce ideas around / get a direct answer if lucky. Reddit / discord are nice places to find people willing to help
2. Sleep it out when possible! I know this can't be the case a lot of times but sleep digestion really is a thing ¯\(ツ)/¯