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A German word for:“It only works when I try to show you how it does not work”?

201 pointsby bcaa7f3a8bbcover 5 years ago

19 comments

ulfwover 5 years ago
That translation is wrong. It’s almost the opposite.<p>Vorführeffekt is when you are trying to show something works (for example to an audience&#x2F;in a presentation) and it does NOT work in said presentation.<p>Remember this oldie but goldie for USB Plug and Play on Windows? <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;IW7Rqwwth84" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;IW7Rqwwth84</a><p>PS: thanks for all the comments! Didn&#x27;t realise the double negation would work too. (Trying to show a bug you found in a meeting&#x2F;to an audience but then it turns out it actually behaves unexpectedly as originally intended. No bug.)
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DeusExMachinaover 5 years ago
The answer also has a great piece of wisdom in its footnote:<p>&gt; &quot;That&#x27;s why we prefer to use power point presentations and (maybe even faked) screen shots to present software in early stages of development, instead of really running a live installation of the program.&quot;<p>When I was giving speaker training, I was always telling people to avoid live demos. There are many things that can go wrong and ruin your presentation with the main culprit being the WiFi connection at the venue (or lack thereof).<p>Invariably, people would not listen to the recommnedation, to only have their presentation fail miserably exactly for that reason. Even those with no live demos where not immune, since they hosted their presentation online.
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jasoneckertover 5 years ago
With camel casting, the German word you are looking for is: EsFunktioniertNurWennIchDirZeigeWieEsNichtFunktioniert<p>Without camel casting, the word is: Scheisse
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michannneover 5 years ago
I like to call it the Admin Effect. It got so bad to the point where anytime I approached a user to fix an issue, the first thing they said was &quot;It&#x27;ll probably just work now that you&#x27;re here... yep, there it goes, thanks I guess&quot;.
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jamil7over 5 years ago
I really enjoyed learning the word &quot;verschlimmbesserung&quot; from my colleagues (the act of by trying to improve something, making it worse). In the context of programming it works really well.
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etiennemarcelover 5 years ago
Also known as &quot;effet Bonaldi&quot; in French: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fr.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Jérôme_Bonaldi#L&#x27;«_effet_Bonaldi_»" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fr.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Jérôme_Bonaldi#L&#x27;«_effet_Bonal...</a>
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jmhakalaover 5 years ago
I thought the english term &quot;Demo effect&quot; is widely used as well? Is it not?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.urbandictionary.com&#x2F;define.php?term=demo%20effect" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.urbandictionary.com&#x2F;define.php?term=demo%20effec...</a>
coldcodeover 5 years ago
One thing learned growing up in a German household (my parents are from there, I was born in the US) is that there are special words and phrases and putdowns in German for almost anything. My grandmother also spoke Yiddish which confused the hell out of me as I thought some things I heard were German but weren&#x27;t. My favorite putdown was always &quot;Brat mir einen Storch und macht die beine recht knusprig&quot; (spelling might be wrong).
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anoncakeover 5 years ago
Friendly reminder that German compounds aren&#x27;t that special compared to English ones. We just don&#x27;t separate their components with spaces.
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jaclazover 5 years ago
The whole stuff somehow reminds me of the classic &quot;magic and more magic switch&quot;:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;catb.org&#x2F;jargon&#x2F;html&#x2F;magic-story.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;catb.org&#x2F;jargon&#x2F;html&#x2F;magic-story.html</a>
Evgeniuzover 5 years ago
In russian this is called &quot;General&#x27;s effect&quot;, where general is an army general. Basically, something is working as long as a higher rank official is present and not working otherwise.
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mamonover 5 years ago
Wild guess: someone heard the word &quot;Heisenbug&quot; once and couldn&#x27;t recall it, so asked StackExchange for help?<p>EDIT: it even is mentioned in the comments.
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jacknewsover 5 years ago
&quot;Vorführeffekt.&quot;<p>lol<p>With blurry glasses, i read that as &#x27;f*ck you effect&quot;<p>In UK, &quot;sod&#x27;s law&quot; is essentially the same thing, though more general than just &quot;only works when I demonstrate that it doesn&#x27;t&quot;
paulvsover 5 years ago
Inverse: &quot;A schrödinbug or schroedinbug . . . is a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Heisenbug" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Heisenbug</a>
zxcvbn4038over 5 years ago
I told my co-workers that Murphy’s law only fails when you try to demonstrate it - they were all from India and had never heard the term before, thought I was being serious and dedicated a guy to learning all about it. I like this word better though, sounds very cool when you say it. I think this is going replace Murphy.
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malaya_zemlyaover 5 years ago
In Russian, the word is визит-эффект (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ru.wiktionary.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B8%D1%82-%D1%8D%D1%84%D1%84%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ru.wiktionary.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B8%D1%8...</a>)
yogrishover 5 years ago
Basically it is like Murphy’s law.<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Murphy%27s_law" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Murphy%27s_law</a>
kerngover 5 years ago
Bill Gates presents Windows 98 and plugs USB device in -&gt; blue screen!<p>&quot;Demo effect&quot; is the English version for this.
pvaldesover 5 years ago
English translation: doh!