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I can't help being reminded of this hacker koan: A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off and on. Knight, seeing what the stu
by j_baker 16y ago
I can't help being reminded of this hacker koan:
A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off and on.
Knight, seeing what the student was doing, spoke sternly: "You cannot fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going wrong."
Knight turned the machine off and on.
The machine worked.
- eof 16y agoThis, in turn, reminds me of a long-shot theory about how the universe works that I sometimes ponder. I can't think of how many times someone has come to me with a computer problem, or I've gone to a vendor/support chat with a problem that hasn't worked dozens or hundreds of times. Then suddenly, with the guru there, whether it is me or someone else, suddenly the problem evaporates. I've found myself wondering if this wasn't some illusion, but an actual artifact of the nature of the universe. Think about it: if noob's problems everywhere were actually the universe not letting their shit work, there would be no one to ever notice it; because when the expert comes in and fixes it, it is magic to the noob anyway, and the expert is 100% used to mundanes not having their stuff work for any given reason.
- arethuza 16y agoSounds like quantum bogodynamics: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/Q/quantum-bogodynamics.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/Q/quantum-bogodynamics.html
- cakeface 16y agoI like to call this the Scooby Doo effect. The ghost always appears for Scooby but not for the rest of the gang.
- BasDirks 16y agoScooby is just a little psychotic.
- trafficlight 16y agoWe call it The Aura. Some people have it and some don't.
- noonespecial 16y agoWe call it "personal entropy". Some people have more of it than others.
- dasil003 16y agoWhat about the case of a person who, when they show up, magically breaks all technology. I had a friend like that, "I didn't touch it I swear!"
- derleth 16y agoReading over jwz's travails with computers of various kinds, he seems to have an amazing amount of it for someone who used to be a professional programmer. I propose we name it the Zawinski Effect.
- freshhawk 16y agoThere is already a scientific explanation for this. It's called "confirmation bias"
- rokhayakebe 16y agoIf your Iphone starts blinking or vibrating randomly or does something weird repeatedly, do you take 10 minutes to understand what is happening or do you just turn it off/on?
- woodrow 16y agoAnd this reminds me of the "More Magic" switch on a PDP-10 at the MIT AI lab: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html
- dolinsky 16y agoAt the risk of causing a bunch of you to spend the rest of the day watching the whole 3 seasons of The IT Crowd....The canonical answer to 'Have you tried turning if off and on again': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8
- jrockway 16y agoThere are 4 seasons, although I agree that season 2 is worth skipping.
- dolinsky 16y agoThanks for mentioning, I haven't checked up in a while (obviously). Season 2 definitely was my least fav.
- dkersten 16y agoAh, there are a few good moments in season 2 also.
- sambeau 16y agoApart from "The Work Outing" and "Moss and the German" which are two of the best episodes from any season.
- pjscott 16y agoImportant to understanding the joke is the fact that Tom Knight designed the processor for the Lisp Machine, and therefore his power-cycling is imbued with understanding.