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"Truly great tools don't usually require threats to drive adoption."

A lot of programmers (even young ones) are really set in their ways so I'm going to disagree with that. However there are ways to encourage people to try new things without ultimatums.

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Ive multiple times had to force programmers to use a debugger at least once (instead of only printing/logging). If they wouldn’t do it on their own whenever a bug stumped them where they needed my help I stepped into the debugger with them to demonstrate how easy to use it is & how much more info/control you get vs printing.

As someone who likes his debugger, I am not sure this debate is cut and dried. I still use printing fairly often, printing predictably works every time and is built in to every language. It also typically has much less of an observer effect than attaching a debugger.

I’m not forcing them to stop printing, I’m introducing an additional tool to their toolbox. For some reason ive offen seen resistance to even try learning how to use a debugger.

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