Ask the Question and the Answer Will Appear

This happens to me so often accidentally that I’m starting to think I should do it on purpose.

This morning I had a problem with one of the online services I use. It’s in an area that has been problematic for me before, so after checking that things were as they should be, I began to suspect the service provider.

Since they have customer support I outlined my problem, the details of my situation, why I felt it should be working, and then asked them why it wasn’t.

I then sat back and waited.

About 5 seconds that is. Because moments after hitting “Submit” a thought came into my head: “What about X? If I forgot to do X then this would be the result.”

Sure enough it was my own problem. Fixed a few seconds after that. (And a conciliatory “never mind” sent to the customer support people a few seconds after that.)

This isn’t the first time I’ve done this. Far from it. I’ll send someone a “how to” question, submit a support ticket, or otherwise make noises about something being someone else problem only to have to The Answer pop into my brain within seconds of hitting “Send”.

I wasn’t joking. I’m starting to think I should do this on purpose.