Last week I got in the car to go to an important appointment, and the damn thing wouldn't start. Being a software engineer, I got out, opened the hood, stared intently at the engine for a minute and did a mental walkthrough of the internal combustion algorithm, then I slammed the hood, got in, and it started right up.

The difference between an engineer and a scientist is that the scientist thinks about how things ought to work, while an engineer figures out what actually works.

If rebooting my car fixes it, cool. Jiggling the handle fixes the toilet, turning the power off and on resuscitates my flaky stereo, closing my eyes and opening them sometimes makes the situation look better...I see a general principle at work here. When the going gets tough, the tough reboot.