Here's a little tip from my friends in IT: The majority of your problems can be solved just by turning your device off and turning it on again. But what about those other times? You know the ones I refer to: The ones where that wacko idea, the one right out of left field, actually yields results?
After Redditor Group_of_no_one asked the online community, "What's your 'HOLY S*** WORKS!' moment?" people recalled the times their random bursts of ingenuity paid off miraculously. Others described the moment they finally found their groove after taking up a new hobby or successfully followed a new tip or trick, and it's a marvel to see!
"When learning guitar..."
When learning guitar: The first time my left hand made a chord automatically via muscle memory rather than consciously putting each finger into place. It's like a tiny miracle.
"Had never managed..."
Poaching an egg in a microwave.
Had never managed to poach an egg; always ended up with egg-drop soup, which isn't what you want for breakfast. A Redditor mentioned the microwave method - break the egg into a small bowl of water, microwave for 45 seconds - and gave it a go.
And it bloody well worked, no muss no fuss. That was a proud breakfast.
"As a programmer..."
As a programmer/developer, every time a piece of code runs first time, no compile error, no seg fault or "object not set to instance" bugs, just straight up works first time.
Until the paranoia sets in and you remember to not trust any code that runs first time.
"I seriously couldn't believe..."
I work on cell towers for a living and most of the time my crew is in some pretty REMOTE areas. Truck battery died one day and it's about 8pm getting real dark when we get the bright idea to jump start the diesel truck with a 18v Milwaukee drill battery.
So we cut the jumper cables in half and spliced some lugs onto the end, shoved them into the thin slots on the battery, (make sure you know which is positive and which is negative or you'll burn the battery.) connected the still intact jumper cable end to the truck and it fired up instantly. No need to wait or anything, in fact waiting will just drain the drill battery and not charge the truck battery.
I seriously couldn't believe it worked. Half my brain was telling me that it's stupid but I worked as an electrician apprentice for two years so the other half of my brain was like "well theoretically it should work..."
"One day I finally snapped..."
Asking my boss for a day off.
I grew up in a hardcore traditional Asian household. Pain and sickness is all in the mind. Suck it up, education is more important than recovering. There's no such thing as overworking or getting tired if there are people more successful than you. That kind of thing.
In college I worked myself half to death, clocking in well over 50 hours per week on top of classes and internships. Between supporting myself and school, my compromise was to just focus on both and not care about my health let alone my severe sleep deprivation.
One day I finally snapped and wanted to call off work 5 minutes before a long day shift. I wrote the most polite, scared text that may as well have been a UN speech in the humanitarian counsel. For the first time, someone superior to me acknowledged that my health is important, that it's ok to take care of myself, and to take a break. (Ofc I didn't make a habit of calling off on short notice, but yea I never thought personal wellness would be an acceptable reason to take a break).
"Figuring I had nothing to lose..."
Back in the day, my brother left a 5.25" floppy disk in his car, and the sun warped it to the point that we couldn't use it when we needed to reinstall the program on it.
Figuring I had nothing to lose, I carefully cut open a spare floppy disk and transferred the storage media from the warped one into the good one. I popped it into the drive, and we were able to copy the files off of it onto a new blank disk. It was such a long shot, I was excited when it worked.
"I have a big record and CD collection..."
When I bought a 6-in-1 music centre last year, that could play vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, FM radio, and Bluetooth. I have a big record and CD collection but no cassettes, so for a while the cassette player lay dormant. When I moved back in temporarily with my parents I moved in my music centre. I found some old mixtapes my mum recorded in the early 90s of her favourite tracks. I decided to pop the tape into the cassette player and it worked! It was the first time my parents got to listen to those tapes in 20 years.
"The moment I saw..."
Making hand pulled noddles. The moment I saw how stretchy the dough was, I was left speechless.
"After years of being obese..."
Diet and exercise.
After years of being obese and thinking that I was simply always going to be fat I went "all in for a 3 week period" - drinking nothing but water, counting every calorie, eating at a deficit, and exercising daily without fail. I got on the scale after day 20 and saw that I'd lost well over 10 pounds!
Blew my mind.
I went on to lose over 100.
"So my kids and I..."
I was a single mom one cold winter and there was a huge cold snap. The water pipe in my garage burst late one Friday, spraying water all over, where it started to freeze. I called all the plumbers in the valley but they were busy with pipes popping all over town, would have charged a weekend surcharge, and anyway "couldn't come out till Monday."
So my kids and I figured out how to turn off the water supply to the house, and I replaced the broken pipes at the hardware store for $1.35. I was so proud when I screwed it in and we turned on the water. Where's my supermom cape!
"Took the strip..."
Had a strip of LED lights. Was bored. Took the strip and improvised some electronics, drilling holes in places, using an old ethernet cable wires to connect the LED strips. I did not expect it to work and thought 3 hours down the drain. but then i switched it on.
"When I was in high school..."
When I was in high school I found a video that showed a combination that you could enter into a vending machine and get your money back. Me and my friend tried it on our campus vending machines the next day. We didn't get that much change, but when we used the code we would get something like 50 cents per vending machine.
"Basically..."
I drove an 8 foot long, 5/8" grounding rod into the ground about 6 feet using nothing but a cup of water. I admit I had to use a hammer and pound it in the last 2 feet, but holy shit, I actually shoved it in 6 feet.
Basically you pour a some water on the ground then more or less jack off the rod (ie; pump it up and down) and the thing actually digs itself a hole in the ground. Add water as necessary.
"I always struggled..."
I always had trouble with eating. If I didn't eat pure protein, I wouldn't feel satisfied (I'm talking a steak, chicken breast, or something that was entirely protein, otherwise I'd be forced to consume a massive amount of food to feel full).
I always struggled with this problem until I started drinking diet sodas. Like diet pepsi, diet coke, things that didn't taste sweet or whatnot. These drinks completely replaced HALF of how much I ate, when I had one with my food.
So, I started replacing entire meals with just a bottle of diet soda, and as it turns out, after going to the doctor, salt has the same effect as protein on my metabolic system.
Also, caffine has no "wake-up" effects, but the opposite, a "go to sleep" effect instead.
"Just every time..."
Just every time you cook something new. You look at the ingredients and think there's no way it's going to be nice or there's no way you'll like it because you don't like 2 or 3 of the ingredients.
Recently made chicken Alfredo and I haaaate cream. I've eaten Alfredo and like it, but seeing myself add the cream I was thinking absolutely no way.
2 minutes later and it was delicious.
"I replaced a door..."
I replaced a door in my house and the manufacturer put a huge sticker right on the glass. It was the kind of sticker where you rip off little bits of papers as you try to get an edge on it.
Someone recommended using the OFF! brand aerosol bug spray. You spray it and let it soak into the paper/ adhesive and then use the edge of like a plastic scraper. I'll be damned if that didn't start coming right off leaving almost zero residue.
"So I put my ratchet on..."
Years ago, I needed to change the crank sensor on a 99 Grand Prix. Didn't have the right tools to get the damn pulley off. So I put my ratchet on, and used a small, metal fence post to jam it against the frame. Took out the fuel pump relay so the car wouldn't start, and turned the key. Popped loose with minimal effort. My nephew (been a mechanic his whole life) said I was an idiot, but as they say, if it works then it isn't stupid.
"When I got my dad's..."
When I got my dad's VHS to USB thing that he never used to work with capturing any composite source. It allowed me to stream GameCube, Wii, and Wii U titles without having to buy anything extra.
"I'm much less lethargic..."
Not snoozing my alarm and getting up when it first rings. I'm much less lethargic throughout the day.
"I found an old key..."
I found an old key on the ground when I was about 10 years old. Just for nothing I kept it on a keychain in my pocket everywhere I went. I thought I was cool. Four years later I still had it on me. Me and a buddy were exploring a construction site. They was a full size loader on site. I climbed in, took that key, put it in the ignition and yep, she started right away. I got so scared I left the key, jumped off the thing (which was running but not moving at all) and ran. Never looked or went back.
"It was so beautiful..."
I used to have a comedy puppet webseries about outer space miscreants (think the young ones crossed with the muppet show) and one of the puppets needed to vomit. I spent a week building the vomiting apparatus and a couple hours making a couple gallons of vomit. The day we shot the scene I just sat back and watched the puppeteers work and the damn thing vomited. It was so beautiful I wept a little.
"It might very well..."
TV broke shortly after being laid off from construction. A week in we get antsy about watching Game of Thrones and I remember I have a projector! So we made a nest on the floor, got a sheet ready, got it all set up and...I don't have a long enough cord to reach the projector. Or rather, I don't have a m>f adapter for the white, red, yellow.
What happened next shocked me. Literally.
So I'm standing there like a fool wondering what I can do when my fiance turns on our old RCA DVD switch. Holds 5 discs but has no HDMI so the PS4 was a no-go. It also has 6 speakers attached which are wired around the room so I can't simply move it closer. So I'm holding the w/r/y for the projector in one hand and the ones for the RCA in the other and when the RCA is switched on I suddenly get a quick electric shock and it hits me: it's just an electrical current. An adapter just makes it so the two connect in a safe way.
The solution? Scotch tape the male w/r/y ends together. It was finnicky, you couldn't even look at it without the vibration of your eyes moving causing the connection to fail, but once I got the sweet spot we were watching Game of Thrones in our cozy nest of unemployment.
It might very well be my crowning achievement.
"When I first moved..."
When I first moved to this condo five years ago, I couldn't figure out why the hell I couldn't turn on the light above the oven or work the fan. It took me a good two or three months before I realized.
Holy hell. What's that light thing on the microwave? Sure enough.
Pressed it - and there was light.
"Quarter of a glass..."
Quarter of a glass of water in the microwave when heating cold pizza.
"I'm a video guy..."
I'm a video guy and I had to shoot a video outside. It was too far from the camera for a shotgun mic and too windy for my LAV mic...then I saw a video where you gaff-tape it to the inside of your shirt to get rid of the wind...
OMG IT WORKED!
"I had some..."
I had some hyper pigmentation on my face that made it look like I had a moustache. I really wanted to get rid of it so I bought a product for a couple of euros that supposedly would work. I didn't really think it would, but then it actually did. I was so surprised.
"Got into an accident..."
Got into an accident with my truck, nothing major, but after i started to rebuild it trying everything to pull out the smashed unibody until my neighbor suggested i use my engine hoist to pull up and out some of the crushed metal and it worked! You look at my truck now and you can't even tell it was in an accident.
"The sales peeps..."
I did IT support for an office. The sales peeps' printer stopped working and they asked me to look at it. I couldn't find anything wrong so I said "By the power of Jesus, I heal you!" and slapped the side of the printer. It started working again.
The sales peeps scowled at me and pushed me out of their office. (It was a bullpen style setup).
"Two days later..."
My ISP offered me $120 to update my old grandfathered account over to the current one. I guess it's a b!tch trying to maintain all these old legacy accounts. $120 free money was enough to get me to switch.
Two days later the changeover has happened and I call up tech support to set up my connection on the new system. We hit a roadblock halfway through set up as I get an error message for one particular setting. It turns out that, for that one setting, my modem's firmware blocks out the number range my ISP needs to use for the modem's own internal use. Effectively my modem can't be used on the new system. So what I thought was free money is now going to cost me money as buying another modem will be more than $120.
With nothing to lose, I google the issue. I find dozens of results discussing the problem. Every single one confirms that I'm screwed. I even find posts from the modem manufacturer stating that it's a known problem with my ISP and modem that can't be resolved. However, I did find a single YouTube video where someone had a similar problem and fixed it. As a Hail Mary I follow their solution and apply the changes.
It fails.
I call my ISP again to ask them what modem I need to buy that will work with their system. While I'm on hold I reverse out the changes I just made to the modem in my last ditch attempt. I'm still on hold, so I decide to try going through the set up again.
For reasons beyond my comprehension, it works!!!
There's no logical reason why it should work, but it does and my internet connects. All I did was make several setting changes to the modem, then reversed those changes. One month later and my modem is still working flawlessly, but I'm afraid of making any other changes to it for fear of breaking what is magically working.
"It no longer..."
Using a toothpaste without SLS (Sodium Laurel Sulfate). Sometimes the L stands for Laryl or Laureth but the main thing remains.
This was posted on reddit as a way to stop incessant mouth ulcers. I thought, sure, why not.
Within a week, the ulcers were reduced to a fraction of what they once were. In a month, gone. Over the years since, I've had sporadic, minor ulcers. It no longer hurts to speak, to eat, to kiss!
For years as a kid I had put two and two together, about mouth ulcers and the frequency with which I did my teeth - but how do you even explain to your parents that brushing your teeth makes your mouth worse!? I couldn't, so suffered bad breath to have less ulcers. This bit of advice is a game changer. One random reddit comment in one of those "what's the best item you bought for under $10" threads.
Not only do I have a clean, pain free mouth, I also have the validation that younger me was not insane. Brushing my teeth with ordinary tooth paste WAS making my mouth worse.
"Not sure what future policing..."
Maybe right now, seeing the BLM movement take over the streets in the US and sympathy protests and self-analysis in many other countries. People of every colour walking together calling for change in the way their societies treat people of colour. The status quo is over. Not sure what future policing will look like but it won't be like it was a month ago. Yay people helping people!
"It had a screen on the front..."
Me and my friend made a tiny robot from an old toy. It had a screen on the front and we reprogrammed it to play music and to bop out and stuff. There was the few oh just check this works, but when we did a full check on it, it worked perfectly. Two days later it stopped but it was an achievement for sure.
"Former roomie..."
Former roomie came to me with a frayed wire on a microphone, asked me to fix it. Told her "no promises" and started to strip everything down for soldering, sweated a little because the wires were much finer than things I'd worked with previously. Definitely felt like I f***ed it up, remember saying "this is probably a fire hazard" to her but it worked fine, and is still working. I was like "get the f**k outta here that actually worked?" Hahaha.
"I totally expected it..."
Building my PC for the first time. I was gonna have my brother build it since he built my first one and he basically told me "I'll do it but turning on your PC after you built it is one of the best feelings out there." So I did. I watched a YT video, and built it step by step and when it turned on I was so hyped it literally made my week haha.
I totally expected it to not to work or for it to explode or something but it was ready to go.
"People always think..."
Drinking a glass of water through a folded paper towel to get rid of hiccups. Works 85% of the time, I'd say. People always think I'm messing with them.
"I tried it..."
One time when I was at university I dropped my iPod touch as I was getting onto the bus. The screen totally smashed and I thought it would no longer work.
I tried it, and to my surprise it still did.
"And then it worked!"
Added a 2nd battery to an old Prius with this box that tricks the car into using it (not my work , an actual engineer made it lol). Took a couple months and I had no idea what I was doing. And then it worked!
"Every single time..."
Every single time I decide to live on the dangerous side and code an entire program without testing it.
"I got the machine..."
My first PC build.
I got the machine to turn on after about 2 hours of assembly, but it would immediately shut off again. Two hours later, after countless google searches, turns out I hooked up a part to the power supply incorrectly. Immediately fixed the issue.
That first boot was like opening the ark of the covenant for me. Still using it today.
