(I'm going to reference it again... one of my favorite essays on programming) How To Be A Programmer - https://github.com/braydie/HowToBeAProgrammer/tree/master/en

The first skill listed in the first section is "Learn to Debug" ( https://github.com/braydie/HowToBeAProgrammer/blob/master/en... )

> Debugging is the cornerstone of being a programmer. The first meaning of the verb "debug" is to remove errors, but the meaning that really matters is to see into the execution of a program by examining it. A programmer that cannot debug effectively is blind.

I don't think its a coincidence that that's the very first bit. It is indeed the most essential of skills.