So, I was messing around with my Raspberry Pi the other day, trying to get this old project up and running. I had this idea, see, to build a… well, it doesn’t really matter what it was. Point is, I was stuck. Really stuck.
I’d been banging my head against the wall for hours, literally hours, trying to figure out why this one darn script wouldn’t execute. I checked the permissions, I rewrote the shebang line like five times, I even copied and pasted the whole thing into a new file, thinking maybe some invisible gremlin was messing with the original.
The “Duh” Moment
It went something like this:
- Spent two hours troubleshooting a Python script.
- Checked file permissions (chmod +x, you know the drill).
- Verified the shebang (#!/usr/bin/env python3).
- Googled error messages that didn’t even exist.
- Stared blankly at the code, hoping it would magically fix itself.
Then, it hit me. Like a smack on the head. It was such a simple thing, so incredibly obvious, that I almost threw my keyboard across the room. (I didn’t, though. Keyboards are expensive.)
I had forgotten to, you guessed it, actually run the script with the python command.
I mean the script that would start this thing was right on my desktop, I’d been double-clicking it, but that does nothing. So I was getting no feedback.
All I had to do was type in the “python” and a space, and the name of the file… You know, the basic stuff you learn on day one. I’d been so focused on complex solutions that I completely overlooked the kindergarten-level answer.
So, yeah, that’s my story. A classic case of overthinking leading to a face-palm moment. Sometimes, the solution is so simple, it’s practically invisible. Lesson learned (again): always check the basics first!