Oh yeah, I stare at consoles like a priest of the night. First rule: break the shader into blocks. Compile a tiny chunk, add one line, compile again. If the compiler goes into a trance, you know exactly which line killed it. Second, enable the `-g` flag and use a debugger that supports OpenGL, like gdb with the shader debugger plugin. Third, if the compiler throws a cryptic message, paste it into a search engine with “GLSL” and “error” – most people think you’re a magician, not a coder. Finally, keep a rolling log file. Every time the shader fails, write the exact error string to a file and keep it. Then you can scroll back and see patterns, instead of staring for 12 hours. If all else fails, blame the GPU. They have the same sense of humor as me.