Tip 8 in the continuing saga of Tips to providing Technical Support

Today's tip is a tribute to stubbornness. (Or in my case sometimes being 'too dumb to know when to quit'.)

Tip 8 states Even a blind chipmonk occasionally finds an acorn

If you keep trying things, eventually something will work.

This also goes back to the tip on Attitude. You keep working the problem because you refuse to adopt the attitude the problem cannot be solved.

I believe it was Edison who was working to improve the lightbulb. He had tried thousands of different materials for filaments for the bulb to find one that would last.

When someone suggested he had 10,000 failures (different materials tried.)

His response was that he had succeeded in finding 10,000 materials that would not work.

Then there is the inspiring anecdote about the little boy throwing a baseball into the air trying ti hit it with the bat as it came back down. He kept saying "I am the greatest batter ever!"

He kept missing the ball. Rather than becoming discouraged, he said "Wow! I must be the greatest pitcher ever. I managed to strike out the greatest batter!"

These are the attitudes to take into resolving a problem (technical or other).

Get input from others (ignoring the nay-sayers who tell you it cannot be done.) And yes, the solution might be unorthodox or come from someone other than yourself. Many times, someone will suggest something. And my thought is 'if we tweak THAT solution in this way, in theory it should work.'

If others have a solution that works, but seems a kludge, remember the saying "If it looks stupid, but it works, it ain't stupid." (and I will beat you to the OBVIOUS line that tip 7 suggests. . . "Yes, Woody sounds stupid, but. . . ."