Embedded software medical device developer here.

I once worked with a hardware engineer that would verbalize his thought process very explicitly, as we worked in the lab.

He would say things like: "Ok, I'm about to let the target out of reset. I expect to see the I2C bus controller initiate a master read of address 0x80."

Then he would do it, and look at the oscope, and see if his expectation was confirmed.

If it wasn't, or was fishy in any way, he'd say something like "OK, I have a mystery. I expected to see <X>, but I saw <Y> instead. I'm investigating this before I go further."

So, you get the drift.

For this guy, the rule was "NO MYSTERIES."

Working with him was a fantastic and valuable experience.