Propagation rewards patience
Radio is a useful corrective for the part of engineering that wants every signal to arrive on schedule.
Software trains you to expect immediacy. Radio does the opposite.
You can have the antenna tuned, the feed line clean, the desk arranged just so, and still spend an evening hearing almost nothing. Then the band opens for ten strange minutes and the whole room changes character. A distant voice shows up with a little fade on the edges and suddenly the silence from the hour before makes sense.
Propagation is a good antidote to the fantasy that effort should map cleanly to outcome.
Some forms of work are like that too. You prepare. You trim the system. You reduce noise. You make yourself available to the moment when conditions turn favorable. Then you try to be ready enough to notice it.
Weak signals are not worthless because they are weak. They are often the first indication that something interesting is about to travel.