56

In reading a web page on increasing word power, there was a German word with the definition that means:

It only works when I try to show you how it does not work.

Is there a single word in German to describe that situation?

Wrzlprmft
  • 21,865
  • 8
  • 72
  • 132
user40125
  • 561
  • 1
  • 4
  • 4

2 Answers2

78

there was a German word with the definition that means:

It only works when I try to show you how it does not work.

What you are probably looking for is called the Vorführeffekt.

It's used like

Die öffentliche Präsentation der Anwendung scheiterte leider am Vorführeffekt.1

It basically means that you try to give some evidence in public while showing how something works (or doesn't work), but you fail because it just gives evidence to present the opposite.

1)That's why we prefer to use power point presentations and (maybe even faked) screen shots to present software in early stages of development, instead of really running a live installation of the program.

πάντα ῥεῖ
  • 8,512
  • 3
  • 28
  • 33
  • Good explanation. – stephanmg Oct 04 '19 at 11:33
  • 7
    In computer terms, the small but relevant part of the computer responsible for this Vorführeffekt behaviour is sometimes called die Admin-Diode. As soon the computer administrator arrives to confirm the problem, it's not there. – Janka Oct 04 '19 at 11:58
  • 1
    German with its wonderful inventive words at it again :) – Dan Oct 04 '19 at 18:35
  • 19
    @Janka: In English, a software defect that cannot be seen when you are specifically looking for it is sometimes called a "Heisenbug" after German physicist Werner Heisenberg, who discovered that you lose information about the position of a particle when you try to measure its velocity. I'd be curious to know if this jargon exists in German as well. – Eric Lippert Oct 04 '19 at 19:14
  • 12
    @EricLippert Of course Heisenbug is used in German as well. – πάντα ῥεῖ Oct 04 '19 at 19:39
  • 12
    That word isn't that specific, I have heard the phrase "demo effect" in French and English as well. – Relaxed Oct 05 '19 at 06:15
  • 3
    The Vorführeffekt can be thought of as a special case of Murphy's Law: if something can go work, it will go wrong during a demo. – miw Oct 05 '19 at 07:04
  • @EricLippert You confuse uncertainty principle with observer effect. Measurements (observing) change the results of an experiment. ;) – Olafant Oct 05 '19 at 19:33
  • @Relaxed. Native English speaker here. I've also heard "demo effect" or the opposite "cable guy syndrome" for when something doesn't work or does work when it's not supposed to. – Aeroradish Oct 05 '19 at 20:59
  • 2
    WOT?!? It's completely reversed? *"It only does not work, if I show it to you (how it is supposed to work)* "Usually it works just fine, but now that I have to demonstrate it…" The Q looks like if it's asking for Vorführeffekt, but is it, really? (Perhaps the Q got it mixed up, revrese-reverse-reverse translation… but still) – LаngLаngС Oct 05 '19 at 22:26
  • 2
    @LangLangC It works in both directions. I first had the same concerns like you but others convinced me that it's still the same. – πάντα ῥεῖ Oct 05 '19 at 22:28
  • 1
    Now that you mention "others", those said "eigentlich, ja, aber"… I see no clarification commemnts on Q, so I suggest to clarify in A: "It only fails when I try to show you how it's supposed to work." is the default usage. The above may be mishap, creativity, artistic licence, etc [Actual Q as is is a nice one for what follows now…] – LаngLаngС Oct 05 '19 at 22:35
  • @LangLangC The mentioned comments were deleted meanwhile. That's what makes the difference of comments and answers actually. – πάντα ῥεῖ Oct 06 '19 at 09:51
  • 3
    I would say Vorführeffekt is the right word. It is usually used in the sense that something always works a certain way, except when you try to demonstrate it (vorführen), it doesn't. The fact that you are trying to demonstrate a failure adds a logical twist to it, but in the end you are trying to demonstrate failure, e.g., "login won't work with the wrong password". The Vorführeffekt would be that it happens to work during a demo. – midor Oct 06 '19 at 11:05
  • @EricLippert Heisenbug is not even close to being similar to Vorführeffekt! The latter does not have to be a bug at all. The presentation can fail due to anything. The presence of hard-to-debug random bugs in the system being presented is a tiny share of what can be a possible reason for the failure of the presentation. -- By the way, this Q gained popularity on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21170732 – Mörre Oct 06 '19 at 11:40
  • @Relaxed: In France, I've often heard "Effet Bonaldi" but I guess no one born after 1990 would know it. – Eric Duminil Oct 06 '19 at 18:38
7

The word is "Vorführeffekt", which translates to "presentation effect". It's used in both cases. Something works fine all the time until you show it your boss / parents / friends. Or something broken magically works again when you are showing it the technician.

Matthias
  • 79
  • 1