When life imitates art

This happened over the weekend to my three-week-old car.

My husband and I were washing it in the driveway. I pointed the pressure washer at the windscreen and pulled the trigger.

The nozzle attachment flew straight off the wand and cracked the glass.

Normally, our ritual is simple: attach the nozzle, aim at the garden, and test the seal before aiming anywhere near the car. But it was scorching hot. We were rushing to rinse the soap before it dried, desperate to get out of the sun—so we skipped the test step.

Between the two of us, we have 50 years of combined experience in software engineering and quality. Our day jobs literally revolve around telling engineering teams: “Slow down. Validate. Never deploy straight to production without testing, especially during high-stress incidents.”

You would think that mindset would carry over into real life. Clearly not. We pushed directly to main—and we broke production.

The takeaway is the same whether you're handling a pressure washer or a critical hotfix: the moment you feel the urge to rush is the exact moment you need to stop, breathe, and verify. Rushing out a release to beat the heat almost always ends up costing you a new windscreen.