I've said this so many times over the years; I figured eventually it would have turned up in google searches.

Seems not; so purely to get it googled, I'll post this.

How many times have you said this isn't working right, with your radio, your stereo, your vacuum cleaner, your computer, your network. And of those, how many times have you later said, oh, it wasn't plaugged in.

Dozens. Hundreds.

As a support person, and a solver-of-problems, I see it petty much constantly.

Hence over the years, I've come to describe this as the first rule of electronics.

It states:

Everything electronic works better when it's plugged in.

Now, we grant some leeway for values of plugged in; there are of course wireless things and battery things. But still; there is some value of plugged in that applies, even if it's only a virtual state (batteries in, wireless on - *power switched on*, etc). So it holds true, universally.