When the demo gods smile

Demos alway fail. It's what they do.

If you try to show something off -- it's invariably going to break.

If you try to show that something is broken -- it'll right itself for the demo. (The demo failing is typically more important to the demo gods than things being broken, you see)

To make a demo work you have to have redundancy. You know the first couple things are going to break. Eventually the demo gods will get bored of you and move on to greener pastures.

Sometimes -- just rarely -- the demo gods are content with the pound of flesh that was tithed before the demo and leave you be. That was me yesterday. All week I was trying to get a system to work. The meeting for the demo was a 1 PM on Thursday. I had been working all hours trying to get it working. (And, admittedly, this was something that intuitively should be a simple task. It, however, was not.)

At 10 AM we got a glimmer of hope. Through lunch we plowed.

- = -

1 PM came and went.1:15.1:30.The other demos demoed.

1:35. Things look like they might start working.

1:40. Holy crap! It worked once.

1:45. Worked again. Let my manager know that it's 👍.

1:50. Confirm again.

1:55. Demo. It worked. Some bits were a skosh janky, but it worked.

- = -

I'm not sure why the demo gods smiled upon me... but smile they did.

I'm certain I'll be paying for that favor for years now.