Occam’s Razor
Dictionary.com explains Occam’s Razor as “The simplest explanation is most likely the correct one“. After a singular experience early in my IT career, I could not agree more. Stay a moment and read for a bit of advice and a glimpse of my level of expertise.
My first job IT job began at a business that was rather small at the time. Despite having a fully fledged office, they lacked an IT team or Technician whatsoever, leaving the overworked secretaries to fend for themselves. I of course only learned this after I had signed on to work for them, rookie mistake.
Regardless, I put my best foot forward and fully intended to do a good job. Then came the printer. This machine had apparently been giving grief to the entire company for as long as they had it and wasn’t about to stop just because I asked it to. The issue was that the computers in the office would either be able to print through it normally or outright refuse to recognize it as a machine attached to the local network. This would change randomly from minute to minute seemingly by complete chance.
And intermittent issue, almost impossible to diagnose.
This issue filled me with anxiety, causing me to decide the only way to solve a complex issue was a complex solution. I began with the most complicated fix possible and went down the list from there, from investigating if the router it was connected to had a software issue to making sure I found and downloaded every single printing software I could get my hands on.
This went on for an entire week.
On friday I was so confounded that I was simply staring at it, trying my hardest to surmise the issue by searching my entire memory for an answer. In that moment, a man from the manufacturing part of the building walked in to deliver a part he made to the office. Seeing my expression he sympathized by asking if the printer was still giving me trouble. I lamented that yes, after and entire week I still found no solution that stuck, which prompted him to remark about the fact that when they were trying to move the printer into the office, someone slipped and dropped it down an entire flight of stairs. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but the fact was that I had made a few huge mistakes.
I didn’t think to investigate the history of the printer beyond asking what was wrong with it at the time.
The most damning of them all, I failed to investigate the one kind of issue that is far too common amongst workplace electronics, a hardware issue.
That very day I went out to buy an E-thernet cord, replaced the old one and I’m told it still works to this day six years later. And all it cost me was an entire week, my pride, and $15, which ended up being reimbursed by the company anyways.
Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something from my own lesson in life.