Not sure I understand how a SWMBO would be any different in this case, to being alone ? To you mean you talk to her about all the details of your TE repairs ? And she gives you technical advice ?! 
That's one helpful SWMBO, indeed... but somehow I doubt this is the norm...
I do talk to myself when repairing stuff, that's called thinking ! 
Sometimes, well usually, before posting on the forum to ask for help, I first do a dry run. I picture myself posting my question, then I imagine what the response would be : "Do we really need to hold your hand you lazy bastard ? Have you checked this ? And that ? What happens if you do this and that ?! " .
So, I do all the things I imagine I would be told to do, it gets me further, and if that doesn't fix it and I am still stuck, and really run out of ideas... then only I would post, because I genuinely would have tried absolutely everything I could think of.
But because TEA is what it is, unlike a dedicated repair thread for a specific piece of TE... well I do admit I do use it to air my thoughts, because I can't possibly be told off for it, given that it's at least 1090% about electronics, which can't be said of 90% of the traffic here.
I guess I use my repair problems as a source and excuse for spamming this thread about electronics, to try to counter act thse who spam it with completely irrelevant stuff. I guess it's a way to resist the OT spamming, my way to fight back. But that would be half unconscious.. we are entering psychiatric territory here...
Oh dear, you seem to think I was having a moan at you, when in fact I was not.
No not at all !
Whereas those with a SWMBO [..}, 2/ SWMBO's have a habit of reminding you that real life needs to carry on, 3/ The breaks that real life gives you away from away your passion, gives you time to reflect on the problems.
[..]
I agree if you had a SWMBO who was on the same level as you, unlikely I know, but does sometimes happen, that would be brilliant, but just the distraction that they bring, buys you the time to review and remember things that you had overlooked / forgotten about
I see ! Sounds like one could achieve the same functionality just by setting alarms on his smartphone !
Haven't you ever that "Eureka" moment in your sleep where your brain resolves a problem that you were struggling with the day before, and often that solution has been staring you in the face, but you couldn't see if before?
Yes, it does happen...that's why I now become kinda reasonable, and when I spend all day trying in vain to fix something, that I am starting to curse and want to throw the TE in the garbage container... I am reasonable enough to say STOP, and go to bed or do something else, that I would have more control over... Then I as you say in bed as I am falling asleep, I am "digesting" all the crap that the TE threw at me during the day, I reflect on it and often it gets me to a next step... maybe not the solution, but at least something I could try tomorrow to take the diagnosis one step further...
It happened to me an awful lot 12/15 years ago when I was working on this Legacy OBD reader for the Lotus Esprit. I wanted a working product, and a decently polished prototype, that looks as "professional" as could be, so I could show it to engineers at job interviews to try to find a job in R&D despite. my failed B.Eng degree.
That was my first "real" product design, from start to finish. It's amazing all the problems you run into when you do an actual product, not just some DIY cobbled together " good enough " thingy, and are having to solve all the problems by yourself, with no prior experience. Every step of the way is a chore and a challenge. The mechanical aspect of the design is by no means trivial. I pulled many hair to get something that works. Every time you run into a wall, anxiety and blood pressure rise, because you know that you MUST find the solution, because nobody will come to the rescue. If you fail to fix ANY of the myriad of problems that pop up, you know your project is dead, and you wasted all that R&D time and money, down the drain.
Anyway. one of the problems was getting the graphical LCD to work. Matrix Orbital 256x128 pixel, 8 bit // interface.
It was using a Toshiba controller IIRC. Downloaded the datasheet for it and got cracking. But I could not get it to come to life.... because the data sheet was not very well translated, was inconsistent here and there, and ambiguous n other places... so I didn't even know, 10% certain, how to drive the thing... and of course I could also have a H/W problem with the wiring on the prototype board, maybe I goofed something there... Spent all day pulling hair and depressing. No joy.
Went to be and digested everything that had happened... and I got an idea ! Tried that next day and hey presto, LCD came to life... the joy was immense.. be it the fact that it worked and the project could move on to the next step, but also the satisfaction of having "won", of not having given up... like "Who's the boss here you fucking LCD !!! " It pumps you up...
Arduino kids can't understand that these days... they don't read crappy datahsheet nor write their own // interface routines nor anything really. They just load ready made libraries custom tuned for a given LCD type and call it a day. Not learning much there !
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