Happy Path

 In tech we have the idea of the "Happy Path". If you stay on the happy path, everything goes right for you, everything is easy and just works. If you somehow get off the happy path, everything goes pear-shaped, you bang your head against the wall for hours or days, nothing works even though it should by all rights, and you never get where you're going.

This would all probably be fine, except for one little thing. We can't exactly say what the happy path is. But don't worry, you'll know when you get off it :).

I was setting up a new iphone 17 for a family member. It was a simple replacement, and they wanted everything the same. With Apple's happy path, you bring the old phone near the new phone and presto it's switched.

Something happened, I really don't know what, and undoubtedly never shall. But I got off the happy path somehow. And what should have been 20 minutes and a couple button presses turned into a nightmare of reboots and sync fails and password fails, and I thought I was going to be up all night and have a very unhappy family member.

Then all of a sudden (after several hours of painful banging my head against the wall) I somehow fell back on the happy path. And just like that I was home-free, dancing and singing. The sun was back out and life was great.

This may seem like such a meta concept. But ask anyone in tech and you will get vigorous headnods. Happy path can make or break your day. So one key to success is to identify them, and try very hard to stay on the right side of them.