Lo-tech high-tech

As is my habit, tonight when I settled down to my late-night work, I started to plug in my phone to charge it.  The plug would not go into the phone.

I cursed the tech for failing and assumed the phone had broken on me.  It looked fine, though, so then I berated the plug on the cable for breaking.  It also appeared normal, however, so I went back to being upset at the phone.

Then I paused.  I grabbed a paper clip, extended one end, and gently moved it around inside the phone's plug receptacle.  Out popped some lint.  I repeated the process three more times, until no more lint appeared.

The plug went in easily. 

Afterward, the problem was easy to see.  I keep my phone in my pants pocket.  Clearly, lint had gotten into the small plug receptacle and filled it just enough to stop the plug from locking in place.

In the moment, though, I let my cognitive bias--tech device, therefore a tech problem--blind me temporarily to the real issue.

I'm amazed that I still have to learn such lessons, but clearly I do.