It Aways Seems So Simple...

Why is it that things always seem so simple once they're done?

So there I sit in our Network Operations Center, on one of many jet black adjustable bar stools, trying to explain to my boss what has transpired over the last 10 hours.

"So? Is it fixed?" He asks me with obvious trepidation.
"Yea. I finally got it," I say.
"Well? What was it?"
"Oh," I sort of glance around a bit. "It was a check box."
"What?!"
"Yea. Just a single lousy check box."
"10 hours for a check box!?"

It's funny, but once a problem is solved it always seems so incredibly easy. "Oh course, it had to be that!" Why is it never that easy to fix before you spend 10 hours of your life, reading error codes, querying log files, checking application setting and searching fifty two thousand Internet search results for that one glimmer of hope, that will lead you to troubleshooting glory.

After all of that you break down and start over. Wiping out the entire configuration and start over from scratch. You begin only to find that you've also blown away the license file and have no idea where that came from. After a two hour conversation with a Serbian national about the legality of your software product, you are back on the road again.

After several more hours of loading screens and progress bars you arrive at the beginning. There is nothing like running in a circle. You feel like a horse. A stupid animal with a brightly painted number and tiny whip wielding man mounted on your rumpus.

"Why were you whipping me like that?! We're right back where we started! If I had just stood still we would have been the first ones here!!"

This is the climax, the point of defeat. After hours of struggling to solve the issue, you admit that all is lost, and you are no better than a floundering baboon. There is only one course of action that can be taken. You begin to sweat as you wheel yourself over to the the bookshelf and draw the tome from it's dusty holding. You break down and read the 'getting started guide'. This is done stealthy so none of the junior techs can see the senior engineer admitting defeat.

"Wait, what's this? A check box that is required.... How odd."