If I'm ordering food at a place like Subway, I'll list the toppings I don't want if it's shorter than the list that I do want.
What real life bad habits has programming given you?
71–80 of 90 posts
Re: What real life bad habits has programming given you?
#72"There's a sandwich in the fridge, if you're hungry." "No, there is a sandwich in the fridge whether or not I'm hungry. In fact, if I'm hungry, it's more likely that there is not a sandwich in the fridge, since I would have eaten it by now. I hate Magical Grammar -- any sentence structured so that the existence of a need leads to the existence of a means of fulfilling it is annoying.
I believe it's meant to be read "It might be useful to you to know, if you're hungry, that there's a sandwich in the fridge." However, "It might be useful to you to know" is a universally applicable prefix to every single statement people make--otherwise, why would they be saying it?--and so it's dropped, even when the other clauses in the sentence happen to refer to it instead of to its subjunctive.
Re: What real life bad habits has programming given you?
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Worst bits: - You can tell someone the answer to their problem, and they just stare at you, confused, while their emotions have to deflate. - When you realize you're talking more abstractly than they can understand. - Or they argue really basic stuff, as they've never been exposed to it. E.g. language alters thought. It's like talking to some sort of organic thing instead of what you think of as normal. Perhaps later…
Actually, the worst part is thinking there's something wrong with them, when in reality you're the weird one. :-)
Hey, between them, me, and the computer, I win the vote. They're the strange one dammit.
Re: What real life bad habits has programming given you?
#74Re: What real life bad habits has programming given you?
#75Not being able to pick up on hints, ever, or otherwise be able to work with incomplete information. If I don't have all the arguments to a function in my brain, I just ignore it until the rest fall into place. Sometimes people specifically leave those out, so I'm lost until it's too late.
Have you tried currying?
Re: What real life bad habits has programming given you?
#76Whenever I pay for something in cash, I'm trying to make it so that the change I get back requires the least notes or is simpler. For example, if I owe $7.84, I might give $13.09 so that I get $5.25. I sometimes get confused looks. Related to that, I don't like having more than 4 $1 bills. I feel like, at some point, I didn't give the cash I should have.
Not really connected to programming, but: I used to always grab 3 quarters, 2 dimes, a nickel and 4 pennies. That and the M&M thing...
Re: What real life bad habits has programming given you?
#77I solve problems by asking yes/no questions. And, by golly, you'd better give me a yes/no answer. No blah blah blah, no roundabout story. Just say "Yes" or "No," dammit!
Re: What real life bad habits has programming given you?
#78Whenever I pay for something in cash, I'm trying to make it so that the change I get back requires the least notes or is simpler. For example, if I owe $7.84, I might give $13.09 so that I get $5.25. I sometimes get confused looks. Related to that, I don't like having more than 4 $1 bills. I feel like, at some point, I didn't give the cash I should have.
I picked that up after I spent some time in China, where it's a common enough thing that nobody thinks twice when you do it. But back in the US, it gets a lot of strange looks.
Re: What real life bad habits has programming given you?
#79I don't think programming has given me any "real life bad habbits."
I get the feeling that a lot of the things people have listed are things they do because they like the idea of them, and actually do on purpose rather than habit.