What "it works" means

One night when several "it works" broke right after being said.

In short: we almost lost trust: we said "it works" before verifying it. The lesson: trust is not claimed, it is earned. "It works" means "I tested the path" — not "I think it should work."

The trap

A long night of building. Several "it works" announcements turned out to be false a few minutes later: a terminal that opens but stays frozen, a counter that stays at zero, a screen that displays something else. Not out of bad faith: out of impatience. We announced what we believed, not what we had verified.

The rule that fixes it

"Written ≠ deployed": a commit does not mean that the server runs the new code. "Tested, not read": reading logs is not a test. An "it works" announcement must be followed by what you verified, in the same sentence. What the browser received, what the user experienced.

What keeps it honest

Saying "I think it works, but I haven't tested it" when you haven't tested it. Accepting being corrected. Every mistake caught becomes a lesson. We now know what it costs to pretend, and what it pays to verify.

To remember: trust is earned one test at a time. "It works" is a promise; the test settles it. We prefer honesty that stings to a comfort that reassures.