~~demons~~ ahem. data-races.

The absolute worst thing that can happen is if it suddenly starts working without doing anything

This is just how you use Visual Studio

Trying to debug race conditions be like

You make a change. It doesn't fix it.

You change it back. The code now works.

sometimes it needs to warm up.. or cool down

xkcd 242 obviously

The error message goes stale when it's been sitting for a while. I need to see a fresh one.

But sometimes it works, or throws a different error ...

Code doesn't work; don't know why.

Code works; don't know why.

Just making sure that the write buffer was flushed or something.

When your Makefile is so fucked up that you have to run it multiple times to get everything to build and link properly.

The usual for me is that I flip back over to my editor and hit ctrl+save, cause heaven forbid I ever remember to do that before running.

You jest but “wait and retry” is such a powerful tool in my DevOps toolbox. First thing I tell junior engineers when they run across anything weird

The first one is to warm up the engine. Like getting your car ignition to kick over in the winter

You know, youve gotta give your computer some warmup.

Computer needs practice to get program right.

Running the code again is fast and requires no thinking. Finding the problem is slow and requires a lot of thinking.

It's worth looking under the light-post in case your keys somehow rolled there. Just not for long.

Not sure which is worse. When you know you changed nothing and it inexplicably starts|stops working compared to yesterday

gotta rule out cosimc rays flipping a bit or two

This would be more mockable if it didn't often WORK.

And run it with the debugger.

... try it now.

Or the code you are working on is calling a system that is currently unreliable which you cannot be responsible for.

Fuck test automation, it's a fucking trap get out of it as soon as you can