So, I wanted to talk about this thing I noticed, this whole “1 out of 10” situation I found myself in recently. It wasn’t some big project, just something small, but it kinda stuck with me.
I have this old desk lamp. You know the type, maybe from my dad’s time. It’s got character, but man, it’s finicky. Most days, I’d flick the switch, and nothing. Nada. Zilch.
At first, I did the usual stuff. Checked the bulb – it was fine. Wiggled the plug in the socket. Sometimes that worked, maybe once. Then it wouldn’t again for days.
I got a bit more hands-on. Took the base apart a little, looked at the wiring. Didn’t see anything obviously broken, nothing loose really. Put it back together. Still nothing. I started messing with the switch itself, clicking it on and off rapidly, sometimes slow. No pattern seemed to emerge.
This went on for a couple of weeks. I’d try it every morning. Flick. Nothing. Flick, flick. Nothing. Jiggle the cord. Nothing. Tap the lampshade. Nothing. It was getting really annoying. I almost tossed the thing out maybe three or four times. Just pure frustration.
The Weird Trick
Then, one morning, I was about to give up. I flicked the switch, nothing. Out of habit, I guess, I tapped the top of the metal arm, right near the joint, twice. Not hard, just a little tap tap. And boom, the light came on.
I thought, no way. That’s stupid. So the next day, I tried it again. Flick the switch, then tap tap on the arm. It worked! Day after that? Same thing. Flick, tap tap, light.
Now, here’s the “1 out of 10” part. It doesn’t work every time with the tap. Sometimes I flick the switch and it just comes on normally, like it’s mocking me. Sometimes the tap doesn’t work the first time, maybe needs a third tap, or a tap in a slightly different spot. But over time, I kinda realized… if I just flick the switch normally, it maybe works 1 out of 10 times, if I’m lucky.
If I do the switch and the tap tap routine? It probably works 8 or 9 times out of 10. It’s still not perfect, but it’s my method now.
So yeah. That’s my little saga. Trying all the ‘normal’ fixes got me basically nowhere, like a 1 out of 10 success rate. Stumbling onto a weird, illogical trick? That’s what actually gets the job done most of the time. It’s funny how things work out sometimes, isn’t it?
