Oh, come on. This image is just the tip of the iceberg of the many reasons we all, at one time or another, have cussed out our electronic devices. And I call bull shit on anyone who says they’ve never done it.
You already know the reasons any specific device can light that fuse.
You need to make an important phone call or send an important text message.
Low battery.
How about “can’t connect to the internet”… even when you’re showing five bars?
Even better, something else on your device is working just fine… but the ONE thing you need right now refuses to connect.
Slowwwww internet, anyone?
You’re watching a show you actually care about, or a live game… and it buffers every fourth word. You get a couple seconds of action, the screen shifts… and then…
That little spinning circle shows up like it owns the place.
Everything freezes.
This one is for those of us with bad eyesight.
I’m sitting there, trying to edit a document, and suddenly it turns into a damn scavenger hunt.
Where the F*&^ is my cursor?
I’m trying to highlight something… anything… and I have no clue where my cursor even is in relation to what I’m trying to edit.
Did it jump?
Did I click somewhere else?
Am I about to highlight the wrong paragraph and not even realize it?
Now I’m moving the mouse around like I’m using a metal detector, hoping something lights up.
Nothing.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Still nothing.
And then out of nowhere… boom… the cursor shows up three lines away from where I thought I was.
The Windows update in that picture?
Yeah… that one used to F&^% me royally when I was doing astrophotography.
This isn’t just sitting at a desk clicking around. This hobby runs through a computer controlling multiple pieces of equipment… all working together to capture images.
And when are you doing this?
Cold.
Very dark.
Middle of the night.
The last thing you need is a Windows update deciding, “Hey… now feels like a good time.”
Now you’re out there, freezing your balls off, can’t see what the F&^% you’re doing, and your entire setup just… stops.
Because somewhere, deep inside your machine, Windows decided it had priorities.
And it wasn’t you.
There’s actually a commercial I saw that nails this perfectly.
Military control room.
Asteroid heading toward Earth.
30 seconds to launch countermeasures.
Tension everywhere.
And then you hear it…
“F&^%^^^^^…”
General: “What’s wrong?”
Tech: “Windows update.”
General: “How long?”
Tech: “…?? minutes.”
General: “F&^^%%$ Microsoft.”
That’s the feeling.
End of the world scenario… and you’re stuck waiting on a progress bar.
Alright, let’s talk about the hardware side of your electronic devices.
Want to know one of the very first things that will screw you over?
Cables.
Those little pieces of shit cost pennies to make… and somehow cost you 15, 20 bucks to buy.
And what do you get for that premium experience?
Something that’s:
- sensitive to temperature
- prone to internal wires breaking
- and guaranteed to fail at the absolute worst possible time
Never when things are calm. Never when you’re just casually scrolling.
No… they wait.
Remember the “low battery” moment?
Now imagine this.
You know you plugged your phone in last night.
You know it should be fully charged.
You wake up, grab your phone… and it’s still sitting at 3%.
Because that garbage USB cable didn’t make a solid connection.
It looked plugged in.
It felt plugged in.
But it wasn’t actually doing anything.
So now?
That $20 cable… that probably cost 10 cents to make…
has officially failed you at the worst possible time.
Again.
Cables don’t break loudly.
They just quietly stop doing their job… and let you discover it when you need them most.
By the way, that astrophotography example with Windows updates?
Cables are just as bad… if not worse.
Cold, dark nights are where cables go to die.
Now you’re out there, in the pitch black, freezing, holding a flashlight in your mouth like some kind of off-brand mechanic… trying to figure out which cable just gave up the ghost.
Because everything looks connected.
Everything should be working.
But something isn’t.
So now it’s a guessing game.
Is it the power cable?
USB?
That one connector you barely touched earlier?
And the best part?
You don’t find the problem right away.
You unplug.
Replug.
Wiggle.
Try again.
Nothing.
Meanwhile, your hands are going numb, your patience is gone, and the sky you came out to photograph is just sitting there like, “You good?”
Cables will screw you over on just about every electronic device you own.
Power cables.
USB cables.
Charging cables.
Different shapes, different sizes… same bad timing.
They don’t fail when it’s convenient.
They fail when you need them.
Ok, you get the picture.
This shit just pisses you right off.
So how do we express that displeasure?
Let’s start with when we can say exactly what we’re thinking.
A string of curse words.
Not just one. Not even a couple.
I’m talking full-on, creative, back-to-back, no-repeat vocabulary… like you’re trying to win an award for it.
And then there’s the physical side of it.
I have threatened—more than once—to drop kick thousands of dollars of astrophotography equipment straight into a field in the middle of the night when everything goes sideways.
Have I done it?
No.
Have I thought about it very seriously?
Absolutely.
Keyboards?
Yeah… I’ve slammed them off the desk hard enough that they needed to be replaced.
Phones?
Let’s just say… walls have been involved.
And somewhere in the background… there’s that quieter, more reasonable version of me just watching the whole thing unfold like:
“Yeah… I’m not getting involved in this.”
“I’m just going to stand over here… and wait.”
“He’ll calm down eventually.”
Which, to be fair… I do.
Usually right around the time I realize I now have to pay to replace whatever I just broke.
It’s like a cycle.
Rage → destruction → silence → regret → wallet damage → repeat.
Look, the thing about this whole article is that as a society. We now depend on these electronic devices. And when things fail, it is almost always at the worse time when you need a specific device right now. And even though I have hinted at it. Part of the frustration that is happening, the cursing. It is because usually when we encounter problems like I have described. We lose time trying to 1). Figure things out and 2). fix the problem. Time that we just don’t have at the moment of failure. That is the primary reason for the frustration, the cursing, and in my case. Physical destruction of the device that just pissed me right the F*&^^ off.