The other day we came up with a new term: infinite brain loop.
In programming, an infinite loop is a type of bug that causes a program to keep performing the same task over and over. Essentially, it gets stuck in the same logic and can’t get out. In my brief foray into programming classes, I created a lot of infinite loops, proving quite effectively that I was not destined to be a programmer.
So our new term, infinite brain loop, is a description of what happens when your brain gets stuck in some pattern and you do something over and over, even though you know it won’t work. An example of an infinite brain loop is when you are frantically looking for your car keys in the same drawer you looked in before. The keys weren’t there the first 12 times, so there’s really no reason they’d suddenly appear. Yet you do it anyway.
The same thing often happens when you are trying to make software work. The problem often happens late at night when you are under a deadline. You go through a series of steps and the computer crashes. So you try to think of a different thing you can do. But you can’t, so you go through the same series of steps you did before. And, guess what? The computer crashes again.
Unfortunately, I haven’t found a good answer to the infinite brain loop, other than just walking away. When the computer crashes, go home and deal with it in the morning. Okay sure, it may be thinly disguised procrastination, but sometimes it does work!