How often do we over-complicate things?

In my case, despite my best intentions, sometimes I do. A lot.

Occam’s Razor says, as you all know, that “among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.”

The truth of that was borne out for me (again!) last weekend.

The charging port on my phone has been failing intermittently for a couple of months now.

I would have to wiggle the Lightning connector in the port to get my phone to charge.

Worst of all, when my phone was upright, cradled on the dash of my car with a NiteIze Steelie mount, any time my car hit a bump the cable would fall out.

That symptom led me to hypothesize that the charging port was worn, specifically the two little nubs on either side that lock into the dimples on the Lightning connector.

Last weekend the charging port failed completely. My phone would no longer charge nor sync.

Dreading either option of paying for a repair or having to get a new phone I went to the Apple store in the mall and sat down with a service tech.

He shined his flashlight into the port, grabbed a SIM card key (looks like a bent paper clip, if you don’t know) and scraped out an improbable amount of lint, dirt, dustbunnies and crud.

The port on my phone was like the world’s most disgusting belly button.

Fixed! The charging port is as good as new.

The tech told me this happens a lot. So I learned something new.

Best of all, it was free! I’m so grateful that it was that easy!