Technology is too hard to use, and it is easy to get frustrated when it doesn’t work.

But we have an innate superpower we can tap into to overcome whatever error message or blinking indicator light we encounter: patience.

There are a few things to keep in mind to help you work through almost any tech glitch you run into: read the screen, try it more than once, and solve the riddle.

In 2006, I bought an Airport Express. It was an early wireless bridge, introduced in 2004, which allowed you to extend a wireless network or, as I wanted to do, stream music to a new stereo system.

I’ve used the same 20-year-old technology ever since, and it just works. Until it doesn’t.

The latest hiccup came last weekend. For some reason, the steady green indicator light started blinking amber, and it would no longer stream.

To reset the device, I needed to use the Airport Utility on an Apple laptop. I could see the device in the app, and I could step through the prompts, but it wouldn’t work.

What did I do?

Tried again. And again.

Although I did think about opening Amazon and searching for a replacement, I didn’t. I entered the same wifi username and password three times and, finally, the blinking amber light turned green. I was back in business.

When you run into a tech issue, you may need to try the exact same thing the exact same way more than once. Perhaps you didn’t type the password correctly even though you were sure you did.

Patience, and having another go, can make the difference between needing to figure out how to safely discard a plastic tech brick or listening to your favorite radio station on Sunday morning with a cup of coffee.

After five years, I needed a new laptop.

Black Friday sales tempted me to grab a discount on Amazon, but I also needed to trade in my trusty MacBook Air.

I checked the Apple website, selected what I wanted, and stepped through the purchase. Before I pulled the trigger, though, I realized I hadn’t set up the trade-in.

I scoured the site, but could not find it. Nothing made sense, so I fired up an online chat, navigated through the bot prompts, and got to a service agent.

The agent told me to look for “Get started” to initiate a trade-in. Two words. Should be fairly easy to see.

But there were A LOT OF WORDS. In small print. And it was late.

I read the screen, and finally saw the words the agent wanted me to find. From there the process went smoothly, and the new laptop was on its way.

Many times, the screen you’re looking at resembles spaghetti on a kitchen floor. Nothing makes sense. You’re busy, so you close the app or website, and move on.

Don’t.

Read the screen.

The answer you’re looking for is almost always in front of you. If it were a snake, it’d bite you.

You need to be patient, though, and maybe even a little humble, to find what you need.

Take a deep breath. Look again. Maybe search the webpage – keyboard shortcuts Ctrl-F on Windows or Command-F on a Mac – for the words you want.

With apologies to “The X Files,” the answer is out there.

My bedroom lights are plugged into smart plugs connected to the wireless network. When I finish reading, I tell Siri “Good night,” and the lights go off.

Until they didn’t.

After Siri, and the smart plugs, failed me, I threw off the covers, turned off the lights manually, and resolved to solve the riddle in the morning.

That frame, a riddle to be solved, helps me put a tech issue into a box I know I can handle. It’s a puzzle. It has a solution. I just need to find it.

The next morning, I opened the app which controls the Meross smart plugs. Stumbled through the settings screens, and discovered there was a software update that needed to run.

Once that happened, I was back in business. The smart plugs worked as expected, and I’d solved the riddle.

What I’ve described is nothing earth shattering. It’s simply a mindset, an approach I take which has served me well time and again.

The ability to be patient, both with the tech which stopped working and with yourself, is the best way I know to overcome inevitable problems with technology.

It may not always work.

But what has never worked, for anyone, is giving up.

If you have the desire, the time, and the patience to try more than once, to read the screen, and to solve the riddle, there is almost no solvable tech issue which you can’t fix.

We’ve got this. You’ve got this.

We are all smarter than our smartphones.

Stick with me on this journey, and we’ll figure it out together.