Guest Rant: There are bugs in my programming by Elizabeth Gast

» Guest Rant: There are bugs in my programming by Elizabeth Gast

July 31st, 2008 | Filed in: Articles, Misc |

There are bugs in my programming by Elizabeth Gast

I am an imperfect person. Who isn’t? Like a finely crafted computer program - even though a lot of work, time, care, thought, stress, blood, sweat, tears, and sleepless nights went into developing my human data - I still have bugs to be worked out. I will always have bugs. Overreacting is one of my bugs. I overreact quite a bit, but after a given amount of time I will look back and realize that I have overreacted and then try to mend my ways in order to fix my ‘bug’. Overthinking is another one of my bugs. Usually, I can over think something to the point of killing it. Like when I write something. I will go back, even after publication, and adjust my article 10 to 20 times adding, deleting and rearranging until I drive myself insane trying to make what I am writing perfect. Overthinking is one of my bugs that I doubt I will ever fix.

The key to dealing with these humanistic bugs is to focus on the parts of your internal programming that do work. Also, being around people that point out your working parts and pat you on the back for them helps a lot. Without these pats on the back a person can end up feeling overlooked, unappreciated, and unloved. And who wants to feel like that all day? Unlike the development of a computer program, having someone point out my bugs doesn’t help in the removal of them. In fact it can make them bigger and more destructive. I know what my bugs are. I know I need to fix them. That is my job as the developer of me. The job of those around me (aka friends, family, bf) is to feed my ever-precious ego so that I have the steam to keep working on my bugs. Without those "warm fuzzies" as fuel, my developing engine shuts down and refuses to produce.

When I was in college I decided one day that I was going to make it a point to tell people the nice things I thought about them when I thought them. Even if it just meant blurting out random statements out of nowhere. I would start to say things like "You know, I like you. I think you’re smart." or "You’re fun. I hope you know that." or "I just thought you should know that I think you are pretty awesome." It was amazing what a difference this made in my social life. People always wanted to hang out with me because I made them feel good about who they were. Soon, they started to return the compliments. "You’re fun too!" "You’re so cool!" Turns out, I loved hearing it just as much as they did.

More often than not, the world of today is focused on fixing the bugs in the system. Generally we are very quick to point out the flaws in those around us. People just don’t walk around saying nice things to each other or giving out ego boosts. And if they do, the other person has this immediate "what do they want from me?" reaction. Which is really kind of stupid because nice statements are really just that - nice! This is such a simple thing that makes such a huge positive impact that I really don’t understand why it is seen as more of an attack rather than the building up of someone else’s system. Seriously, we as an evolved plant should know better.

Thriving on problem solving like I do, I have fallen victim to the "bug elimination syndrome" many many times - another personal bug in my human programming. I forget sometimes that I am not the only one who needs ego fuel. So in the promotion of fixing one of my internal bugs…

I just thought you should know, I think you are pretty awesome.