Why "It Works on My Machine" Is Probably a Huge Lie
ThatSoftwareDude
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Why "It Works on My Machine" Is Probably a Huge Lie
August 7, 2025
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Hello there! đź‘‹
After 20+ years of writing code, I’ve said a lot of things during failed deployments or demos gone wrong: “just a quick fix”, “I’ll write the tests later”, and the most infamous of all: “It works on my machine.”​ If you’re a dev, you’ve said it at some point.
This week, I’m breaking down why this five-word phrase has stuck around for decades, why it still kinda works, and why it probably isn't going away anytime soon.
It’s a friendly-but-frank look at the excuse we all love to hate and why it’s time we retired it (or at least used it with an asterisk).
If you’ve ever deployed something you swore was working five minutes ago… this one's for you.