Hehe, my wife is constantly amazed (and appalled) when I bang, hit or wack a device, electronic or mechanical, that isn't working right for me and after the wack actually starts working. She feels it's just not right that I can bang stuff around like I do and then have it work properly for me rather than just breaking.
Of course for me it just depends on the replacement cost of the device. The more it costs to replace the thing, the less likely I am to try and solve it by banging it. Like my Kobo, I would never abuse a table or wall like that. Granted that yes the table did win in this case but abuse is still abuse.