Recently, I was listening to the incredible story of Colin O’Brady, who pulled a 375 lb sled by himself across Antarctica in -100 °F temperatures. Colin completed 932 Miles in 54 days. He mentions that for a majority of this incredible trip he was in what he calls a flow state— full immersion and fixation on completing a task.
If you’re not trying to be the first person to trek solo across Antarctica, flow states can be rare.
The Problem
Until…you get the blue screen of death.
We’ve all seen this screen, and it throws us into panic–the PC is near death. Will it recover? Now we’re facing unexpected costs, the inability to get work done, or worse, no way to access memes for a giggle.
My specific problem was “Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.”
Where did it go? Is it expensive?
This task becomes my main objective. The solution takes all my effort. I enter the flow state.
The Solution
Through this state, I end up in the documentation. I’m going line-by-line at the command prompt, entering commands like I’m Bill Gates. I’m scanning for the Boot Configuration. Aha! Located it. Now it’s time for the rebuild… 3…2…1…Operation Complete. I’ve surgically rectified the problem.
I restart and in a moment of glorious triumph, I’ve returned to normal. I glance at the clock; 25 minutes elapsed while I was in the abyss.
Being someone that appreciates and geeks out on relevant documentation, reflecting on this experience showed me that without documentation, I may have never entered the flow state and reached the mindset of solution.
I may not be crossing the Antarctic, but without the help I found through documentation, it would’ve been a black screen…the true death of a PC.