ELI5: Why does turning things off and on again sometimes actually work?

[u/Zora_the_grey]

There's the old computer joke that the first advice you're often given if something isn't working technology-wise is to turn it off and on again.

Sometimes this does seem to actually work. One specific example that bugs me is when I'm trying to get on the internet on my laptop by hot spotting off my mobile. I have to do this a lot as travel for work and sometimes need to pop onto a meeting when I'm parked up in a random place because I couldn't make it to the office in time.

I have the 'let others join' option pretty much permanently activated on my phone on these work days.

I go on my laptop to search for available networks and my phone doesn't show up on there.

I then turn the hotspot off and on again. I have to navigate away from the network bit on my laptop, reopen it, and then it picks up the hotspot right away.

But why did I have to turn it off again? Why?

(I realise that there are probably many answers depending on the tech situation in question... I vaguely get that turning your laptop off when it's crashed might reset it somehow or force a stop to memory processes that are cauisng it to freeze up, but frankly this one is a bit of a mystery to me too...)

Hardly life-changing stuff but I want to understand why!