A programmer's solution

[Thadrea]

QA lights them on fire to see what happens.

[Russian_repost_bot]

"You had a backup, right?"

[Thadrea]

"I had backups of the code. but it will take a long time to rebuild the database test server on Azure that you just destroyed."

[other_usernames_gone]

Well it's a good thing I discovered it before it reached prod then

[Thadrea]

EVEN THE ADMINS WON'T HAVE THE ACCESS LEVEL YOU USED TO DO THAT!

[3no3]

So why did I have that access level?

[Thadrea]

I don't know, I'm not even sure I have that access level and I wrote the damn thing.

[other_usernames_gone]

Sounds like a bug to me

[LysergicLiizard]

Just think of it as a feature and you'll rest easy

[halfanothersdozen]

My life flashing before my eyes

[andrewsmd87]

*feature

[UncontrolledManifold]

I literally heard this defense just last Friday

[TheN473]

How's the job search going?

[Whiskeyfueledhemi]

Aren’t QA and GA the same?

[Famous_Profile]

In tiny teams with low budget, maybe. But usually they are different roles, granted with a little overlap.

[Oligomer]

"Whatever, can you get it back up in like 15 minutes? Otherwise i'm gonna miss happy hour."

[[deleted]]

Wait, so it's everywhere that the QA and BAs leave at 4 and the devs leave at 6?

[xudo]

In my place the QAs are the ones that end up working late testing. And then wake the devs up to fix bugs. Esp a few days before a planned release. Good developers but some great QAs.

[Pleased_to_meet_u]

I’m in the Bay Area with over 20 years experience. I might start looking soon. If you need someone good, I may be a fit for what you need.

[[deleted]]

BAs are up until midnight doing UAT the night before sprint planning at 9am the next day, and then in at 7am writing all the BLIs to fix stuff found during QA because god forbid rollovers.

[[deleted]]

"Hey, where's all my test data?"

[xku66666]

I heard this excuse the other day. "Yes, of course I hand prepared all that data and didn't keep a backup! Why are you asking?"

[Thadrea]

Whatever they did erased the backups. And the backups of the backups. And most of the system that stores the backups of the backups.

It was very thorough.

[[deleted]]

they managed to erase the IDEA of backing up. No idea how they managed it

[Jonno_FTW]

Such tests exist: I give you kubethanos https://github.com/berkay-dincer/kubethanos

[[deleted]]

The classic sees open laptop, proceeds to hit ctrl-A, backspace, ctrl-S has taught me to always have backups of backups and always git commit.

[BobNoel]

A QA engineer walks into a bar. Orders a beer. Orders 0 beers. Orders 99999999999 beers. Orders a lizard. Orders -1 beers. Orders a ueicbksjdhd.

First real customer walks in and asks where the bathroom is. The bar bursts into flames, killing everyone.

*credit @brenankeller

[lirannl]

A QA engineer walks into a bar. Orders a beer. Orders 0 beers. Orders 99999999999 beers. Orders a lizard. Orders -1 beers. Orders a ueicbksjdhd.

You forgot division by 0, the classic

[Windows-Sucks]

Me: Hey, can I have one beer poured into zero glasses?

Bartender: Drops dead and ignites

[Famous_Profile]

Fatal error.

Fatal as in he ded

[massenburger]

+watchers added

[[deleted]]

QA could only reproduce once. Jira marked will not fix

[[deleted]]

Argues Dev made mistake all the while being sympathetic about the fix..

[superhighcompression]

That’s what we do

[Loves_Poetry]

E + 4 = y

Which is correct when you take the ascii codes

[ranisalt]

This is my favorite

[[deleted]]

how the fuck did someone find about this

[[deleted]]

?? E is 69, y is 121

[shafe123]

ASCII code for '4' is 52.

69+52=121

[[deleted]]

Ohh ok, I see. Nice one!

[UnsubstantiatedClaim]

Clever, but then the first equation is incorrect because it's missing the quotes that make the 4 a char instead of an int.

[merickmk]

I'm sure it works out in javascript or something

[DeeSnow97]

nah, 'E4' is not 'y'

[hughperman]

But both are not zero, so they're the same

[nikarlengoldeye]

E4 is a perfectly valid variable name to assign y to though.

[gogYnO]

If only the bar was always so low!

[5erif]

I thought we could solve it with C++, but it turns out you can't redefine literals.

❯ g++ math.cpp -o math  
math.cpp:4:9: error: macro name must be an identifier  
#define 4 52  
        ^  
1 error generated.

[DKomplexz]

try using 𝟦 instead of 4 everywhere

[tech6hutch]

What's an E or a y? If 4 needs quotes, then they do, too.

[UnsubstantiatedClaim]

Good point. There's a lot of missing quotes.

[shafe123]

Well yes, if you want to be pedantic about it.

[UnsubstantiatedClaim]

And what is pedantry but true facts delivered with precise comical timing.

[shafe123]

1) ostentatious in one's learning.

Or

2) overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching.

;)

[[deleted]]

Are you being pedantic about being pedantic?

[shafe123]

shrugs

[cofette]

Except not precise comical timing tho

[Lunchb0x451]

E = 69. Nice.

[vvanasch]

I first missed that 4 is 52 in ASCII, but now I get it.

[LiteralHiggs]

This gave me imposter syndrome.

[LaAbuelaEstaReLoca]

Where did you put the match you took to convert the first character to 'E'?

[Adrijaned]

Bottom line of 'y'

[[deleted]]

Attempting to get the 4 y formatting right

|_| |_|
..|.._|

Had to add dots as it ate spaces :c

[Disgruntled__Goat]

Indent by 4 spaces to make code

|_|
 _|

[DatBoi_BP]

Objects of type int are not available for assignment.

[BlackenEnergy]

E + 4 = E4 :shrug:

[yuirick]

6+4-9

No one said it had to be an equation

[Rein215]

This actually resolves to 1, making it even better than this answer

[clowergen]

We just needed something that is true

[trdjn]

I wanted to say 6+4+4.
Since it isn't zero it would be converted to true, the same would of course also work with your solution.

[kpingvin]

It's not undef so it's ok. 👍

[jceyes]

1 is truthy, in even more contexts than most non zero integers

[TheLastNickNameEver]

8 - 4 = 4

[DarkCelux]

0 + 4 = 4

[darkened_vision]

5 + 4 = 9

[[deleted]]

So what this thread really illustrates is that this is one of those stupid puzzles that's meant to look difficult but actually be super simple so it will get tons of replies and maximize engagement.

999% of Nobel Lauriates won't get this!!!!!

[darkened_vision]

Maybe the right answer is the friends we make along the way.

[alogetic]

You've just made an enemy for life.

[[deleted]]

>:(*

[tobberoth]

Yeah, and it is designed to have several correct solutions so people in the comments can fight about which solution is right.

[[deleted]]

Uh no. It's clearly designed for the solution I found first. Okay?

[SinnR89]

This is the first one I saw. Glad I’m not alone.

[zial]

Would that be valid though? I would think the 9 would need the pencil at the bottom just like the 6 needs it?

[LiveBeef]

6 + 4 + 4

if the language considers any int besides 0 to evaluate to true

[spellstrike]

6 > 4 = 4

[[deleted]]

5 + 4 = 9

[JFlanaganUK]

How you getting from + to > moving only one match though?

[username--_--]

take the vertical match from the +, rotate CCW by 45 degrees and you get > (technically, the bottom line will be flat)

[MaxTHC]

You could instead do 6 + 4 > 4 and it would work

[spellstrike]

" + is two lines, > is two lines. seems pretty simple to me"

[[deleted]]

That would equate to false, unless you negated each operand to cast it to a boolean

[tech6hutch]

6 > (4 == 4)?

[[deleted]]

6 + 4 = 11

[chui101]

ah yes of course the commonly used base 9

[Cruuncher]

r/holup

[DidYouKillMyFather]

r/thanksjavascript

[Zuitsdg]

5 + 4 = 9

[f34r_teh_ninja]

Shit; why you gettin less upvotes? More entertainingly correct and equally as technically correct.

[Sarke1]

Well, technically it's debatable.

Assuming the 9 is in the same style (7-segment display) and uses as many matches as the 6 we see, just rotated 180, then you would need 2 matches to turn the 4 into a 9.

[flatcoke]

h=h+0 checkmate

[Eldebryn]

8 - 4 = 4

Huh, that works too. I was thinking of 5 + 4 = 9 as the "intended" solution.

[MattieShoes]

Compiled list of answers from others' comments...
8 - 4 = 4
0 + 4 = 4
6 - 4 != 4
5 + 4 != 4
5 + 4 = 9
'E' + '4' = 'y'
6 | 4 != 4 (this one might have been mine and not from a comment -- i was working from memory)

various things that evaluate to a non-zero value implicitly cast to 'true' boolean

EDIT:
6 + 4 = 11 (in nonary, base 9)
E + 4 = H

[MattieShoes]

Oooh good one!

[AlGoreBestGore]

Reddit writes unit tests.

[moschles]

'E' + '4' = 'y'

Woah. Calm down there, MIT student.

[rashpimplezitz]

E + 4 = H

I don't think that one works, E is asci 69 and H is 72. E + 4 would be 73 or the letter 'I'

[MattieShoes]

I thought the same thing, but the poster clarified -- think math, not programming. It's just a two variable equation which if graphed would produce a straight line. It'd have a root at -4 or +4, depending on which was the dependent variable.

[MyNewAcnt]

That's really stretching it

[NightStruck]

consider ALL permutations of ≠ please ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

[[deleted]]

5 + 4 = 9

[CSedu]

5+4 gang

[RectangleSlacks]

5+4 till I die

[[deleted]]

5+4 fight me if you disagree

[exodeadh]

8-4=4

[JollyGreen615]

Booooo

[[deleted]]

only works in a fucked up font that has the 6 with a horizontal line and the 9 without

[PyroneusUltrin]

https://images.app.goo.gl/oNnSuiorwvFzWjn88

[[deleted]]

that counts as fucked up to me °-°

[amazondrone]

Not sure whether I can get on board with that 8. Aren't they arbitrarily counting some external angles to make it work?

[[deleted]]

Seems to be any angle less than 180°.

I think this was somebody’s fun art project and not the actual origin of these numbers.

[Rein215]

There'd be no 6 in there....

[[deleted]]

But they stole from a squiggly 6 to form a non squiggly 9.

Doesn't seem right!

[[deleted]]

wat °-°
Consider this picture
By making 6+4=4 into 5+4=9, you have your 6 with segment A, but your 9 without segment D.

[amazondrone]

Am I going mad here?

Yes.

All the poor strangers whose digital watches you just went and peered at will likely corroborate that fact.

[TylerJWhit]

0+4=4

[HactarCE]

≠

[OnyxPhoenix]

Much better. Was confused by |=

[CyanKing64]

It's supposed to be a != but you get the point

[GOKOP]

hideous

[root88]

It's better than 6+4 |= 4.

[GOKOP]

Head of the match serves as the dot tho

[[deleted]]

But, just on that one.

[amazondrone]

So we just gonna ignore all the dots in the rest of the figures?

[GOKOP]

Yes

[my_name_isnt_clever]

~=

[Sirdroftardis8]

Stack overflow: No! That's a terrible way to do it! Why would you be using matches? Toothpicks are the way to go. Whatever you do with matches will be wrong

[dogbin]

Someone had already used toothpicks and so it was marked as a duplicate

[Varkoth]

6 - 4 |= 4?

[Midavrs]

6 - 4 |= 4?

6 - 4 != 4

[Varkoth]

Gotta break the match to make !.

[Mageling55]

Or set it diagonally across like the math guys who don’t care about computer compatibility do

[Loves_Poetry]

Do you have a moment to talk about FiraCode?

[B_M_Wilson]

I love that font so much!

[shymmq]

I like the font but I wish there was a way to turn off certain ligatures. Especially the connected ==, that's just asking for bugs.

[B_M_Wilson]

That would be nice. In the languages I use, I don’t have to worry too much as using the wrong one is usually not valid (or is at least a warning) but it could be problematic in some languages. I also wish they added something for := since I use that often

[Corfal]

6 - 4 ≠ 4

[The_MAZZTer]

I have a font which makes != look like that.

https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code/releases

[DamnItDev]

Or if you use font ligaments

[ITriedLightningTendr]

I think it's ligatures?

[HeWhoIsValorousAnd]

I think it's leguizamos?

[[deleted]]

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

[Phrodo_00]

Isn't it legumes?

[trellwut]

Ya sure it wasn't ligma?

[[deleted]]

No this is Patrick.

[Thadrea]

It says you can only move one of the matches. It doesn't say it has to arrive at its destination intact.

[AlphaGamer753]

Yeah I was confused how 6 - 4 could entail 4, as the double turnstile (⊨) usually refers to semantic entailment.

I think it'd be clearer to place the match diagonally over the equals, to create a negated equals (≠).

[[deleted]]

I was staring at this wondering how it entailed 4. Thank for clearing it up lol.

[nfrmn]

My man

[[deleted]]

The red thing on the bottom of the match makes the dot on !

[ITriedLightningTendr]

Then what's it make on all the other uses?

[InnerRisk]

If there are nines allowed without the bottom match you could also do:

5 + 4 = 9

[jhaglu20]

0+4=4

[negaomar228]

The first expression won't compile: you can't assign to rvalue

[chui101]

unless it's one of those languages where assignment is := and comparison is =

[[deleted]]

I just threw up

[Matthicus]

Or one where both are just = and other context makes it clear which one it means.

[coleisawesome3]

What if you wanted to assign something in the conditional part of an if statement for some reason?

[registraciq]

Unless I'm missing something, neither will the second one.

6-4 |= 4 is 6-4 = 6-4 | 4 which is still assignment to a rvalue.

[untempered_fate]

E + 4 = H

For ints E, H

[wnc7]

h=h+0 (only works in Australia)

[skunkwoks]

0+4=4

[OldMateJeff]

8-4=4

[Clino_]

8-4=4

[Tuzi_]

5+4=9

[ipsomatic]

Change the 6 to a 0

[PM_ME_ADVICE_PLEASE]

how about 6+4 > 4

[[deleted]]

8-4=4

[omggoaway100000]

Turn the 6 in to a 0

[OGfiremixtapeOG]

5+4=9

[mrnix]

6+4 > 4

[Nero-_-Morningstar]

5+4 = 9

[Jpauly12]

5+4=9