Hal fixing a light bulb (what software development always feels like to me)

This clip from Malcolm in the Middle in which Hal tries to change a light bulb only to discover a seemingly bottomless chain of tool fixes he has to complete before he can accomplish the task he actually set out to do feels like it perfectly encapsulates the experience of trying to get anything done in the software world.

Every task ends up encountering at least one — if not many — annoying and unexpected tooling, configuration, infrastructure, etc. issue that has to be resolved before the actual task can be completed.

This clip comes to mind at least once a week during my work day. Maybe it’s just because I work in the JavaScript ecosystem?