Urg Totem: Error Say, ‘Cable Not Plugged’. Humans Say, ‘System Broken.’

In olden days, when Urg was a young shaman, he think everyone want to know things. Urg likes knowing things, and reading. Sometimes tho, ppl don’t want all knowledge. Is ok- not everyone likes to know history since time started. Very helpful for troubleshooting, not helpful for finishing things before ale-o-clock.

So, Urg make programs- sometimes they have errors! Can’t control that because humans interact with programs. That’s the point! But humans are weird and unpredictable.

error say what to do, how to fix, how to troubleshoot. Sometimes problem is Urg’s problem, sometimes it’s humans problem. (most time it’s human problem, if we are being honest - but these are challenges to conquer! Different post, no tangents!).

So error log shows all the truth:

INFO: MAKING DEVICE GO
INFO: TRYING TO CONNECT TO DEVICE
WARN: RETRY ONCE MORE…
ERROR: DEVICE NOT WORK. CHECK CABLE (GREEN). IF GREEN PLUGGED IN MAYBE BIG WRONG!

Urg see this. Urg understand. Check cable! Green one!

But young shamans… they not see last line. Now, clever young shamans copy paste all errors for Urg to see, and say “Urg! Help! I have error!”

Urg reads error, and think, “Urg must broken system with latest merge, dumb Urg.” Much time spent and skull scratching.

Nope, young shaman not plug in green cable! Why inflict pain to urg like this? Urg trusted young shaman! Its ok, we not yell at youngling. But we unhappy.

Urg has theory about this, and maybe it help other shamans: Young shaman don’t read when scared because if not green lights, heart go fast. Young shaman has angry leaders (more angry than Urg) and sometimes only want go, no think. Young shaman must make green light, so finger go faster than brain and say “Help!”.

So, Urg’s tribe try new thing: we summon ancient demon from mid 1990’s.
Is forbidden in some places, but Urg makes new rules. Is ok, Urg knows this demon. Not wise demon. Not noble demon. Hateful spirit. But has power. So much power.

You can summon demon if you want to see:

 
   __                
  /  \        _____________   
  |  |       /             \  
  @  @       | IT LOOKS    |  
  || ||      | LIKE GREEN  |  
  || ||   <--| CABLE NOT   |  
  |\_/|      | PLUGGED IN. |    
  \___/      \_____________/  

So we put demon in logs. Right in logs! How un-shaman-like. Logs are for text, not picture! Many smart shamans say, why not just pop up window or syslog interpreter, or abstraction upon abstraction upon abstraction? No, too complicated. Urg likes dumb things. Clippy goes in syslog. We see what happen.

But! What happen? When Clippy appear, human see. pause. humans may even feel little sad or mad at clippy. Is ok. that is clippys purpose. message is delivered through clippy spirit.

Then humans plug in cable.

Victory! Younglings can make new green lights faster, and also not bother Urg about how everything is urgs fault.

Urg lessons that error not need be more info, sometimes less info is better. Sometimes message need hurt a little. Shame is strong medicine.

If humans not read error, maybe try summon ancient demon.

But do not over-do! power is diminished with use.

But if pain is high, he may be solution. Clippy redirect pain away from tribe.

Urg not make dashboard, or alert UI or popups or robots to fight humans. Just small demon summoning and print statements. Done in 5 minutes.

Really, you might think Urg joking. 100% true. Worked perfectly. Many less interruptions very quickly.