What real life bad habits has programming given you?

Question

Programming has given me a lot of bad habits and it continues to give me more everyday. But I have also gotten some bad habits from the mindset that I have put myself in. There simply are some things that are deeply rooted in my nature, though some of them I wish I could get rid of.

A few:

• Looking for polymorphism, inheritance and patterns in all of God's creations.
• Explaining the size of something in pixels and colors in hex code.
• Using code related abstract terms in everyday conversations.

How have you been damaged?

Answer 1

I swear my attention span gets shorter everyday...

Wait... What?

Answer 2

I tend to take things hyper-literally. For example, my wife was annoyed when she used to ask "Do you want to take out the garbage?" (no) instead of "Will you take out the garbage?" (yes).

Whether this is a result of programming, or just an innate trait that helps in programming, I cannot say.

Answer 3

Working in a mostly male dominated field gives you all kinds of unfortunate bad habits (use your imagination), which only causes the field to be sadly, mostly male dominated.

I also learned about feedback loops.

Answer 4

When I'm reading a text book I get very frustrated when I can't Ctrl-F and just search for what I'm looking for.

Answer 5

Fairly often when typing in normal conversation I will end my sentences with semicolons;

:/

Answer 6

First, not so much programming per say, but I have been caught saying brb instead of saying be right back a few times.

Answer 7

Programming teaches you that the universe is predictable and deterministic. I've personally found that this has shaped my expectations and fed my impatience with people and things that are not.

There's a positive side to this - I think that spending time in an environment where you can't "fudge" the answer or bullS**t your way through (you can't "kind-of" sort a set of integers, and it won't sort unless you tell the computer exactly what to do, and correctly) has sensitized me to b.s. in other environments, from commercials to claims about tax cuts - I just find it much more obvious when people are clearly hand-waving/fudging an answer.

Answer 8

I want to use regular expressions to search for physical objects.

Answer 9

I google everything.

Answer 10

I used to work in a Fortran shop that had a lot of Chinese programmers. I noticed that they used the word "continue" in normal conversation a lot more that a native English speaker would.

Answer 11

I find that sometimes I speak very precisely, and get irritated when somebody (usually my wife) doesn't appreciate the precision of what I said, and treats what I said kind-of sort-of similar to what I said.

Like when I'm cooking and she hands me the margarine: I didn't mean, "hand me anything yellow out of the refrigerator," I meant, "hand me the butter."

Answer 12

Always being on the lookout for bugs in programs, or things that just don't look right, I find bugs in everything, especially TV shows. My wife LOVES it when I rewind a show ten or fifteen seconds to point out something that's not right. She would give me so much crap about it that I escalated and started keeping a laser pointer next to my chair so I could pause the show and "circle" the offending item with the laser.

Funny, the laser disappeared one day while I was at work... curious.

Answer 13

I wish I could grep my keys.

Answer 14

Because of the programming mindset, I tend to say exactly what I mean (even if other human beings tend not to throw syntax errors or other exceptions so lightly :). The problem is, when others tend to ask me something but they mean something else, I tend to get irritated. If I'm in a good mood, I will attempt to be helpful, à la:

• This?
• Do you mean that?
• Yes.
• Answer.

However, and more often than not, I tend to reply to the question as they asked it, which typically is not very well accepted (ask my mother-in-law :)

• This? (while meaning That)
• Yes. (or No, or whatever other terse reply, but if it can be replied by a Yes/No, I always answer Yes or No. I occasionally use mu when appropriate and let them wonder).
• Yes? How can it be?
• It's your answer.
• But I asked that.
• No, you asked this, and yes is the answer.
• But I meant that!
• Then you should have asked that. etc

Awful, isn't it?

PS The author of this answer is an ● Offender.

Answer 15

It's ruined my ability to read normal English without wanting to hurt someone.

Punctuation now infuriates me. For example:

She asked around (quietly.)

Is apparently the correct way to write a sentence that ends in a bracketed phrase. But my brain refuses to accept it.

Also, unterminated quote characters (which is, I'm told, perfectly acceptable when quoting larger passages) make me want to stab people in the eyes.

Answer 16

I now consider 256 to be a nice, round number. Occasionally I'm caught off-guard when non-programmers don't get that.

Answer 17

You tend to become very logical and with a highly developed memory, and it can be a very large pain in the butt when dealing with people in the real world (outside of other very logical folks), such as behind the deli counter (dont ever ask for 1/3 of a pound of anything!) or the post office, or the my God - you're toast if you go to Mc Donalds and dont order by number. They have no clue as to how to convert what you ordered to their number key for the "value meal" on their register (i.e. memory)..

Answer 18

When someone explains a problem they had (flat tire, wrong bank statements, bills) I can't help but imagine a sequence of states and actions which move that person from one container to the next (where he/he will have other actions to move to other containers).

It is kind of weird but it helps when you want to give someone options to get out of a problem.

Answer 19

Lack of sleep, which I now kind of accept as a way of life, but probably shouldn't be..

Answer 20

Two one-off NSFW events (translated into English):

I was staring a beautiful sunset with an old girlfriend. It was beautiful, but I rarely need to express verbally my admiration, I tend to just enjoy. She asked me, "don't you like it?". I said, "yes". "Yes? that's it? haven't you got something more to say?". I said, "It's got a fucking great resolution."

Same gf, and we had a semi-heated discussion about each own's free time, and how much time I was spending with a computer. Later on, when we were more relaxed and she was calmer, her being in my arms with her back towards me, I touched her breast and double-clicked her nipple.

Hope you don't have issues with profanity or things having to do with sex.

EDIT: since it's not immediately obvious: I tend to make jokes about computing. Sometimes they are not jokes. OK, I apply computer thinking into real-life.

Answer 21

Starting weird conversations with colleagues by making completely illogical or straight-out confusing remarks about whatever they're currently talking about, deliberately twisting and mixing their topics or words and saying something about what i pretend to have understood they were talking about while at the same time enjoying how they try to make sense of it and seeing in their faces the questions wether i'm really serious about this - which of course i am - even though most of the time i just make terrible, terrible jokes - on purpose.

I also write confusingly long-winded sentences that are hard to follow.

This is my way of dealing with the logical and predictable world we program in. No, you don't call that living. Or do you? Tss, tss...

Answer 22

Drink too much diet coke 4 | 5 cans a day!!!

Answer 23

I start counting with 0 and often times end up with 1 less than everyone else comes up with.

Answer 24

I'm very methodical when doing practically anything around the house.

For example, I thoroughly read any manual that comes with a product I've bought, even something as simple as a toaster, before using it.

If I'm going to hang a picture frame, I'll google "hang picture frame" to verify that I know how to do it correctly (or I'll look for a book at Amazon about picture-frame hanging).

I'll gather all necessary tools before starting a task. I do a lot of measuring and experimentation before committing to any action that is not easily undoable.

This drives my wife nuts.

Answer 25

We use to have a lot of Quake tournaments at the office. I distinctly remember driving home one day after a particularly long match. I caught sight of something in a tree as I drove by it.

The first thought that ran through my head was: Sniper! If I spin the car around, I can get off a shot before he sees me!

Answer 26

I have referred to the part of the grocery store where the food is sold (as opposed to the lightbulbs, flowers, detergent, etc.) as a subset of rows.

Supermarkets are laid out in such a way that you can usually narrow it down to where your food isn't. At some point in the store, the items stop being food and tend to be things like mops and detergent, until you hit the wall where the frozen stuff is. Then on the other end of the store tend to be things like produce and the deli/florist/pharmacy. So I had the Velveeta narrowed down to a subset of rows, but I went up and down these rows repeatedly. Add to this the fact that I'm getting more hungry, tired and flustered and the situation started to really suck.

Answer 27

Every User Interface, digital or otherwise infuriates me when it does something that makes it needlessly difficult for the user. Like hitting "Cancel" to run my debit card as a "credit" card. WTF?

Answer 28

I look for logic in everything I do - consequently, I am largely devoid of religion (although since I consider logic to be the basis of reality, I could consider logic itself to be a 'higher power' I suppose).

Answer 29

This isn't very related to programming per se... but when I was in final year in varsity, all those assignments really got to me. In exams I found myself trying to tap CTRL-Z whenever I'd make a mistake.

Answer 30

I agree with Glomek. I tend to be precise in what I say and also expect others to be. I too often hear what people say and not what they mean. Well most times I know what they mean I just ignore it...

Also I started hating quick dirty fixes of problems. If I want to solve a problem I schedule it to find a time and then totally commit to it and do it right. In real life that means that I either clean the whole room rather than just cleaning up one corner. My girlfriend doesn't like that.

BTW: It's a real relief to read that other programmers also expierenced this. I immediately forwarded this post to my girlfriend.

Answer 31

Mostlyharmless posted this one as a comment to another answer. I can perfectly relate and I am laughing my ass of right now.

That happens with me and mom when i visit home. "Do you want anything to eat?"... "No."... "Want some cookies?" ... "Arent cookies a subset of food? Stop asking the same questions, you'll get the same answer." "GET OUT OF MY HOME!" "fine, fix the PC yourself next time". Mostlyharmless

Answer 32

Along the lines of precise speaking, I find that I refuse to deal with ambiguous questions/statements until they are resolved. Even if I have a pretty good idea what they want, if they phrased it wrong I can't answer because then I'd have to guess and programmers shouldn't ever have to guess.

But repeating "What do you mean" when someone thinks they phrased something perfectly well just pisses everyone off.

Also--cookbooks. I can't go near a kitchen!

First you combine a pinch of this in a rolling motion with a scoop of that.

DEFINE YOUR GODDAMN TERMS

Answer 33

Ending sentences with ";"s

Answer 34

My comp sci frd and I started to talk geekly

When we are hungry we say "my buffer is underflow" When we get sick and throw up we say "my buffer overflowed"

Answer 35

One thing I've noticed lately is that many engineers in different fields (EE, ME) don't try to simplify and automate things as much as software people do. I'm not sure why that is, or even if it's true in general. After all, the sample size I'm basing this on isn't very big (a couple dozen engineers I've worked with).

It may be cliche, but it seems that people who get good at writing software are motivated by laziness. If everyone was as constructively lazy as a good programmer is, the whole world would be more efficient.

Answer 36

Q; Do you want tea OR coffee?
A: Yes

edit: now I have to confess I just found a bug in our app where I was trying to set a bunch of option flags by ANDing them together ;-(

Answer 37

I spend too much time thinking instead of reacting and my improv performances suffer as a result.

Answer 38

I really need control+Z in real world.

Answer 39

I find it very annoying when you ask a question that should be answerable but get no answer, especially when it relates to time.

ME: So how long do you think it will take to fill this prescription?
THEM: I really can't say.
ME: Can you give me a rough ballpark?
THEM: No, there are a lot of customers ahead of you.
ME: Will it be filled by the end of the week?
THEM: Oh yeah, it will be filled by then.
ME: Will it be filled by tomorrow?
THEM: Oh yeah, it will be ready within a couple hours.
ME: Thanks.

Why they can never tell me that to begin with I will never know.

My wife used to get irritated with me and said I was interrogating people until it affected her one night. We were at the hospital at 1:00 am because my mother-in-law had fallen and hurt her hip. The nurse came in to take her for X-rays, and my wife and I were wondering if we should just go home because it looked like it was going to be an all night ordeal.

ME: How long will the X-rays take?
HER: I don't know, it just depends on how many people are ahead of her in X-ray.
ME: No idea?
HER: No.
ME: OK, we'll wait here.
HER: You might want to get a drink or snack because it will probably take at least a couple of hours.

Uh, ok, why couldn't you just say that to begin with?

Answer 40

I answer either or questions with "yes".

Answer 41

"""I had a big let down when I first realized the term "Google Earth" didn't mean what I first thought it meant"""

-Comment by Bill the Lizard on one of the answers

Answer 42

When ever i make a mistake in anything in real life, the first thing that goes through my mind is ctrl-z!!!

Answer 43

I forget to clean up after myself ever since I started using Garbage Collectors :)

Answer 44

CTRL + ALT + DEL (OR REBOOT) does NOT fix things! in real life

Answer 45

I think spending most of my waking hours sitting on my ass in front of a computer is a bad habit. I'm surprised there's not moss growing on my north side.

Answer 46

I lose my keys/sunglasses whatever...I want Google to find them for me!

Answer 47

I watch Alton Brown's "Good Eats" cooking show on the Food Network and he refers to the food ingredients as the "software" and the knives, peelers, pots, pans, and other kitchen implements as the "hardware." Being a programmer, I appreciate his terminology, but I have also started to apply the terms to other activities where "software" and "hardware" can be separated like that.

I also tend to use more computing terms in day to day conversation, like downloading stuff from the car, or taking a "data dump." America needs to be "rebooted." Sometimes I ponder if I am in the matrix or not, and I really enjoy caffinated drinks, at almost any time of the day.

Answer 48

Knuth would kill me, but I try to optimize every single path that I take, from college to home or just to the bathroom. I also tend to try to optimize the flow of people serving things in restaurants. But that's just sad.

Answer 49

Thinking that concepts and techniques you learn in the software industry can be applied to Real Life.

They cannot.

Answer 50

It's not exactly programming, but what the hell...

I wish life had a Quicksave button. I would push it everytime my wife starts a conversation; who knows when she will get offended by something I said unwittingly?

Answer 51

While on vacation a couple years ago, I was standing atop one cliff, looking at the opposite cliff in a scene which was a bit beyond what my brain is used to accepting as "real" and I immediately thought "Wow... Impressive special effects."

Answer 52

Seems like subtle things have seeped into my daily life over the years. Gradually started staying up later working on things. Overly literal in how I understand real life scenarios. Biggest thing of all is ending sentences with ';' or '?>' (I've come to loath PHP now) ;)

Answer 53

I frequently wish I had direct SQL access to databases for where items should be located. Mostly to see if they even (1) ever carried the item in the first place and (2) if they have any now.

Books-A-Million. WalMart or Target is another one. Are the coolers in the camping sections or on top of the drinks this time of year? (Camping during winter, near drunks during summer -- usually). I just need a sql prompt... I can figure the rest out. Or hell, any access to custom search queries. I can type faster than all those CSR's... :P

Answer 54

If I'm going to the race and you ask me, "Aren't you going to the race?", I'll say, "no" because "You are not going to the race." is a false statement. If I'm not going, I'll say "yes" because the statement would then be true. Some find that irritating, but I can't help it. That's what you get for saying, "Are not you going to the race?".

However, to allow me to answer the question properly without confusing people, I'll do "No, I'm going." and "That's correct." repspectively. This seems to be less irritating to people.

I also avoid asking questions with negatives in them so I don't get improper answers that might confuse me.

I never had this problem before programming. I guess all those bools and conditionals just got to me.

I guess technically, it's a good habit, but in reality, since not enough think that way, it becomes a problem.

I also have a shorter attention span now.

Answer 55

The last time I was standing in line at the airport to check my bags, I surveyed the situation.

I'm in a long line.

There are a limited number of ticket counters.

There are a handful of airport employees at the front of the line directing passengers to available ticket counters.

Then it hits me. I'm in a packet-switched queue.

Answer 56

When my salary is expressed as $xK, I expect a multiple of 1024. I am usually disappointed.

Answer 57

I get tremendously excited about new technologies when it is obvious that they will be shoddily put together because that means there will be more opportunities to hack them back into working order.

As a corollary, I take things apart that I have no reason to believe I will be able to put back together often with the thought in the back of my mind that I can roll back to the last working version.

Answer 58

I have those little fold out paper hangers attached to the sides of my monitor ... to hold database diagrams or specs or whatever ...

When I get into "the zone" I often try to mouse onto the paper and get frustrated when the pointer stops at the edge of the screen.

Answer 59

I'm getting good at vi, but...

• j and k don't scroll in word or notepad or visual studio or dreamweaver ...
• escape takes you out of insert mode in vi, but takes what you just typed out of an excel cell.

Answer 60

Back in high school, instead of doing "mind map" notes for lectures like we were told to do, I always did nested list elements, alternating the bullet style at each indent level.

Crap, I just referred to writing bullet points as "list elements". There you go.

Answer 61

I do not socialise too much, Even if I have to say Hi to my roommate I do it on Orkut. Talking to Computer for me is just as normal as talking to some friend, the only difference it stays there to listen me and friends walk away

Answer 62

I think Midnight Code Warrior syndrome qualifies, sometimes accidentally staying up until 4AM. ;-)

Answer 63

Believing that being right is enough.

Believing that people will listen to reason.

(And all the more amusing ones that everyone else has posted!)

Answer 64

I see patterns.

Answer 65

Nomad Dervish's answer reminded me — I used to be a level designer, and on more than one occasion I looked at a beautiful sunset and thought that it was a really good skybox.

On another occasion I chose my route across a courtyard to optimize my r_speeds.

I spend too much time on the computer :)

Answer 66

It's really hard to stay healthy when you sit and stare at a screen for 10 hours per day.

If you're not careful, programming can help you learn a sedentary lifestyle.

Answer 67

I tend to forget that to non-programmers numbers are numbers. The concept of short and long integers for example, is completely alien to them.

Answer 68

I find that if I'm writing a letter (yeah, I know it supposed to be email (or texting)) to someone I tend to nest brackets when I am making side points.

My wife thinks I'm crazy when she sees that. So do the recipients of those letters. But its a habit.

Answer 69

I forget how to make small talk :(.

Answer 70

I'd say excessive pedantry (which is an asset in programming) is a bad habit in many real life situations.

Also thinking in terms of templates makes our mind less flexible. Almost every time when I'm looking for something in a paper-printed book, I'm catching myself wanting to press that "/" :-)

Answer 71

I'm not sure whether it's a bad habit, but I think I do have a propensity to try and optimise too much / think things through logically (given that the world is not a logical place)...

For example, when my wife and I go to the supermarket, I draw out a plan of the store and note down what we need in which aisle. Then, when we're cooking, I tend to go through the list of ingredients and if it says "1/2 chopped onion" I damn well get that onion out and start chopping it before we start! (Depending on when it's needed in the recipe, of course, sometimes you can do these things while other stuff is cooking).

The other thing I find is, I'm not sure whether this is the result of being a programmer or just me being weird but I find I have a strange memory for numbers. If I use them enough, I can remember credit card numbers, phone numbers, library card numbers... etc.

Answer 72

I find it annoying when I'm typing anything that's not code, be it IM conversations, forum posts or general writing in Word, and I can't get IntelliSense or tab complete words and phrases.

Answer 73

In my first two years of Computer Science at university, I learned patience and problem solving: how to chip away at things that were being very frustrating by not doing what I thought they would instead of just getting angry. I think that's a good habit.

Like others, I have lately tend to query rather than guess at the meaning of poorly or ambiguously phrased statements. or just those with no clear context. After clarification, I tend to explain how they could have phrased it better. This doesn't usually go down well.

It's hard to say if being neat made we want well organised code, or if the habit of well-organised and laid out code has made me neater around the house, but it's sometimes a source of tension.

Answer 74

1. There is a reason for everything, I mean EVERYTHING, if someone is sad, why are they sad.

2. I am now incredibly inquisitive, this is not a good thing, as demonstrated.

   Casual conversation: 
   B: "I'm sad"
   A: Why?
   B: "I don't want to speak about it"
   A: (Internal dialog) "Why would they be feeling sad, 
                      have they had a bad day, 
                      what's been going on in their life, 
                      did I say something wrong..."
   Some period of time elapses.
   A: Why are you sad?
   B: *Annoyed as well now*

3. I want to fix everything, EVERYTHING. Above B was feeling bad, I must now fix their problem, because there is a fix to everything (EVERYTHING).

4. I am addicted to cola and not in a casual one a day kind of thing.

5. I try all the stuff as others do (copy-paste irl etc)

Answer 75

Due to the quick changes of requirements in the IT industry I rarely finish off anything I st

;-)

Answer 76

Looking for code completion in all forms of text editors, including Word and Outlook.

Answer 77

I started using .com at the end of almost all my sentences, i am writing in Arial and i speak English better than my own language (Macedonian).com

Answer 78

I miss description / comment tags on anything. When I walk to school and there is a computer as "Jobstation".. after a while you find out you can only browser pre-set websites of popular employers, but you can't connect to internet.. Why isn't there any sticker with description? "study chair, study table, door, window", etc.. :)

Answer 79

I tend to handle any decision relying on outside influence in if statements.

"if waiter was friendly, tip well

else if waiter was slower than expected, don't tip

else tip 10%"

Apparently pseudo code doesn't make for a nice conversation to normal people.

Answer 80

I have started writing Color instead of Colour. (I'm British by the way)

Answer 81

Rather regularly I try to click the light switch with my mouse when the dark becomes straining for my eyes.

Answer 82

Expressing numbers in x times K. Like in: "My bed cost me two point one kay".

Answer 83

ISometimesForgetToUseSpacesWhenIType

Answer 84

Not so much just programming but web design/development as a whole, I deconstruct and reconstruct real objects into websites or elements mentally and constantly throughout my day.

Living in a constant state of agitation because of so much bad typography around. A little kerning goes a long ways.

Mentally write out methods that operate the functions I perform on a daily basis, such as doing the dishes, folding laundry, et cetera (I also refactor everything so that I'm as effective as possible when doing said chores.)

A huge need for structure and order - if things are not done properly or don't look structured it throws off the whole balance of my day and I will dwell on that one thing until it's fixed.

Answer 85

I sometimes use the wrong name for a person or a thing. I explain this by saying that in my brain this wrong name hashes in the same bucket.

Answer 86

I tend to over-analyse everyday things, I think that it annoys the missus when I come up with corner or edge cases about stuff that REALLY shouldn't be that complicated...

I am convinced that she is the only reason that I ever get anything done; left to me, most moments would have long passed by the end of the analysis phase.

I do think that it's slightly different to being pedantic, definitely a programmerism

Answer 87

I get spooked when I'm about to try something, like, say, cooking something, and my first instinct is to make a backup of my 'work' first to try it and then revert if something goes wrong.

I'm far too used to working with a safety net. ;)

Answer 88

Pressing Tab too often when I am writting an email expecting some words to autocomple te.

Answer 89

I can just love websites because they are well designed, intuitive and useful. And I will tell all my friends about them (http://www.skyscanner.com, http://www.nestoria.co.uk/, http://openstreetmap.com/, ...)

And along with that, I can hate others. Because some are just wrong in the way they do things. It is irritating. Especially when you know they could have done better with a couple of days of work and/or a better interface (http://www.voyages-sncf.com, ...).

Answer 90

Being far too analytical about absolutely everything. It's a great attribute professionally, but only leads to frustration in my private life...

Answer 91

I always try to use Ctrl-Spacebar in Outlook to complete my sentences for me when writing emails or in Live! messenger.

Answer 92

I became obsessive with the latest or popular or best tool for programmers that I stay late at night to get be familiar with it.

Answer 93

my head is every day nearer to my right shoulder

Answer 94

wife: "I don't feel good."
me: "Please define 'I don't feel good'. Be more detailed."

Answer 95

I find myself continuously and subconsciously filtering all my world experiences to some inbuilt sorting algorithm (could be a bucket sort?). This has afforded me the ability to give attention to the top 10% or 20% and blissfully disregard the long tail everything else

To boot - I have a great relationship with my wife, daughter, dog and laptop (not necessarily in that order), but feck all else….

Perhaps this is why I find stack overflow such a cool site ;0)

Answer 96

I find it very annoying when people aren't expressing themselves syntactically or semantically correct in written language. It has come to the point that I sometimes find myself refusing to read or accept what I'm reading if the person is unable to express themselves correctly.
It doesn't apply to standard human error though, just to people who consistently doesn't use correct language.

It has been this way for me for quite some time but recently I realized that most non programmers around me aren't really bothered by this.

Answer 97

Never focusing on anything more than two feet away from my face. I'm developing all kinds of vision problems.

Answer 98

When I'm looking for real life things, I find myself wanting to put everything in a list and say List.IndexOf(item); :P

I also find myself correcting people more because what they said wasn't equivalent to what they meant :P course that may just be me...

Answer 99

I find that most people get upset by mistakes.

I generally don't. I have always thought that the reason is that I am trained to accept that there will be mistakes, because compilation errors are a norm. When they happen, you fix them, and move on with your life. If you get upset over compilation errors, you won't last in this biz :)

Answer 100

I now drink way to much coffee.

Answer 101

I've learned to create test cases. Seriously, before I do something now I think about breaking it down into smaller tasks then how to verify that each part works, and how to continue to verify it as I do further tasks related to it.

Answer 102

Due the prevalence of online banking and credit cards, I have to think for a second or two whenever I have to write a check.... "OK fingers, spell out \"One hundred fifty-five and 0/100\" ".
In fact, I refer to all handwriting as "the analogue method" now.

Answer 103

If someone signs an email to me with:

//Their name

I always sign my reply with:

/*My name*/

Answer 104

If I'm working on something that I'm bored with, I start chewing my lips. It started in college when I would only let myself take breaks from studying for a test if I was hungry and had to eat. Now it makes me crazy.

Answer 105

Went out for lunch with a colleague, stopped off at the ATM for cash. Got into a rant about the user interface, collected my card, walked off and left £40 in the machine :(

Answer 106

I usually try to mentally press crtl + z to undo actions like pouring coffee over my desk or saying something stupid.

Answer 107

I'm addicted to SO (yes, already). I really should seek help.

Answer 108

I was getting lunch a few years ago at Rebecca's Cafe in Kendall Square and the girl behind the counter asked me what kind of bread I wanted and without thinking I said, "Whatever the default is."

She might still be laughing . . .

Answer 109

I am reluctant to use things which I do not have enough information about. It's about being afraid of unexpected/unsafe behaviour and wanting to use something in the best possible way or not at all. Which is partly the reason why I'm still using a wired router for my computers instead of wireless routers which are the rage nowadays.

I use quicksort to sort my playing cards. Ok, just kidding.

Answer 110

I have become very good at figuring out everything that's needed before embarking on a new adventure. I overplan.

Answer 111

While most 'non-programmer' people have their outlook synchronized with their wifi-bluetooth strawberry phone, I use notepad for my tasks lists and memo notes ...

Answer 112

Some one suggested me to move them into a post:

• Looking for polymorphism, inheritance and patterns in ALL of "Gods" creations.
• Explaining the size of something in pixels and colors in hex code.
• Using code related abstract terms in everyday conversations.

Answer 113

I'll often jump into a task (like, say, repairing the fence) somewhat thinking I can pause my work at any time, and worse, believing I can easily ctrl-z any major mistakes.

Answer 114

• I dropped my keys in front of my door and tried to hit CTRL-Z with my left hand
• During breakfast, I double-clicked on my bread to open the butterdish

Answer 115

I tend to type a lot of all emails in all lower case so that they'll "compile correctly."

Answer 116

i so long for Ctrl+Z

Answer 117

I set the volume on my stereo to powers of 2. The first few are generally too quiet, but 8 is nice for background listening, 16 when I want to actually hear it, and 32 for parties or when we all go out on the deck.

Of course there are times when it isn't right there, but there's no way I'd set the voulme to 15 or 17 :)

Answer 118

After doing some web programming I found that I was in the habit of supplying sample answers to my own questions. "How long will it take? 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, longer?"

Answer 119

When I listen to a question that's asked of me, and it isn't crystal clear what is being asked, I usually ask for clarification before I answer. But 99% of the time I could have spent some CPU and figured out what the question was. Some people I know don't carefully build their sentences, so it really pisses them off. If I don't do the work of listening, I'm not really listening.

Answer 120

Sometimes I get a weird urge to shout HELO in a conversation.

Answer 121

I try to end my IM chat conversations typing

exit

Answer 122

Binary search in sorted lists! Specially dictionaries and references (the ones made of dead trees).

Answer 123

I think rather than programming, because the web has given me instant access to the information i need within a few seconds of typing into google. I expect answers from people to be just as consise and accurate.

When people don't answer the question that i ask them it drives me mad!!

For example: Me: What time did John say he'd be here?

Answer: Well he said he had to go to the store first to pick up a carton of milk for his great aunt who is bed-ridden, then he was going to wash the cat. Then later he has to pick up Mary from night school and they'll probably go out for dinner later. Oh....and he was wondering if you had dropped off the hedge trimmer you borrowed last week because he hadn't seen it around.

Me: So is he coming over then?

...

Answer 124

I find I remember a lot more about programming than the kinds of things people usually remember. Take a shopping list for example, I don't remember what's on the list because I should be able to refer to the list any time necessary. Addresses and Phone numbers are in a grepable text file, I never actually recall them myself. Etc.

Answer 125

I tend to use '==' instead of '=' regularly, also sometimes indenting documents the way I would with C.

I don't consider it a bad habit, per-se. Alas; the rest of the world would ;]

Answer 126

Sometimes I accidentally and automatically end my sentences with semi-colons.

Answer 127

I don't know, programming pretty much played right into all my bad habits. Before programming (BP), I was almost keeping them under control, which took a lot of constant effort. Programming was sort of like finally being able to take a leak after holding it for way to olong.

Answer 128

Sitting here writing this in the evening instead of being with my wife (or working on the spec that's overdue).

Answer 129

Almost all of the ones others have listed show up in my list too. Wishing the world could be more programmable. (Just the other day I commented to my SO while we were watching a story on the financial meltdown that it should be trivial to link a congressperson to their entire history of contributions, bills they've sponsored, their co-sponsors and their bills, etc. How unreachable a goal given the characteristic non-transparency of the political universe.)

Answer 130

We are quick to get annoyed when other people are imprecise, or even to realize that they are being imprecise.

Answer 131

I think of powers of two as round numbers.

I throw my important documents into a shoebox instead of sorting them. I figure that I so rarely read from that cache compared to how often I write to it that it's overall cheaper to have expensive reads and really fast writes.

Excessive literalism. When playing something like 20 questions, I'll come across something like "is the object bigger than a breadbox?" and can't answer yes or no, because the answer depends on the size of the breadbox and the size of the object in question.

I think that floor numbering in Europe is more sensible than here in the United States.

I have an annoyance with English misuse of logical operators.

These may not be strictly because I'm a programmer, but more because I'm just a dork :P

Answer 132

Thinking that powers of 2 are round numbers is one habit. Forgetting how to talk to people if I've been programming all day, is another.

Answer 133

not concentrating on my studies

Answer 134

I no longer count sheep... I iterate a loop.

Answer 135

It's not a bad habit, but I've learned how to give very accurate, concise instructions. Thank you imperative programming!

Answer 136

Noticing that the need of a reset button in a tool (home appliances, gadgets etc.) grows exponentially with the dependency on software. That depresses me as a programmer.

Answer 137

I needed to watch Wall-E (or any other Pixar movie, for the matter) ten times before I could pay attention to the story: I spent most of my time trying to figure out the polygon count.

Answer 138

Caffeine and Nicotine addiction.

Answer 139

I always end up sending one last IM at the end of a conversation that says "exit". Its embarrassing..

Answer 140

Criticize paper forms that have unnecessary fields.

"Why does it ask for my age when it already asks for my birth-day?"

Answer 141

When I clean my house, I feel as if I'm "defraging" a hard-drive.

Answer 142

I like doing tune-up work (defrag, chkdsk, the works) on people's computers, if they are computer illiterate. I feel it's a calling, a ministry, an addiction. I wife thinks differently, especially if I do it for free.

Answer 143

Thinking that I'm dangerously under-caffeinated when I can't put two ideas together. Wondering, sometimes, why caffeine can't be injected. Would be much more efficient, wouldn't it?

Answer 144

I often try to press Ctrl-Z in real life!

Answer 145

Occasionally, I look at the wall in my room and think: "Look at those specular highlights! I wonder how many poly's that is?"

Answer 146

I very regularly wish I could multi-thread many tasks.

Also wishing I could have a control / API / Scripting language to change real world environment variables.

Wait for a misspelled word's to become under-lined when hand writing.

Answer 147

1. Lack of patience, especially when things need to be fixed/changed. (Can't recompile to fix my car) 2) Overusing logic (most non programmers can't handle logic, so you end up with a lot of blank looks) 3) Smoking - i solve most tough problems over a smoke break.

Answer 148

To start with

1. Typing Ctrl+space while using text editors. This is essentially a auto completion feature in eclipse/netbeans. This happens more often than ending sentences with ';'
2. Trying to illustrate list of things graphically using pen and paper - Sounds Good. Trying to do the same with your family/doctor - Bad. Numbering the first item as 0 (zero) - Ugly
3. While taking snaps, asking people to do a Ctrl++ (Zoom) instead of asking to come closer
4. Scolding your pals as 'Ctrl-Alt-Del' is funny though.
5. I also tend to pause when I hear about cook books, do they have something to do with cooking or programming.

Answer 149

I have trouble having civil arguments with other people sometimes. Programming has left me with an arguing style where I rephrase my argument until the other person (the compiler) is unable to respond (print a compilation error).

Unfortunately this leaves people with the impression that I bullied them into submission rather than compromising, even when the end result is the same. It takes a conscious decision to allow ambiguity or misinterpretation in the interest of harmony.

Answer 150

An irregular sleeping pattern (borderline insomnia and sleeping at the wrong time),

A less than optimal social life

A compulsion to find fault in almost everything.

A total dislike of meetings (of any length and nature).

Severe impatience with people who don't read error messages before calling in a support ticket.

Answer 151

I press the reset button before my girlfriend/parent has finished telling me what the problem is. Slowly they are learning to make backups. :)

Answer 152

I tend to look at everything, from building design/architecture to mechanical objects to ATMs in terms of efficiency and ease of use, and will often say that "$RANDOM_OBJECT is badly designed" for the sake of making people realize things could be simpler if we really tried.

Answer 153

I've got caught out teaching my kids the three primary colours are Red, Green and Blue...

Answer 154

After starting using a tablet pc, I started trying to Ctrl + C on paper...

Answer 155

Whenever I stand in line to pay for groceries in a shop where you have one line that splits into many checkout tills at the front, I start thinking about grid computing and load balancing algorithms and whether the shop queuing solution can be improved, or if I can improve my servers based on my shopping experience.

(It passes the time while queueing I suppose :-)

Answer 156

• I look for symmetry in GOD's best creation -- girls ;)
• At some social gathering with non-technical people, when my friends start a debate and when more than 2 of them talk simultaneously, I start to explain them about synchronization, mutex, etc.
• I find myself using the words "abstract" and "encapsulate" a lot
• Whenever I go to some restaurant, I start thinking how quickly can an order be queued, served, billed, etc. instead of enjoying the food. Basic Big-O and stuff.

Everything else is already told by my fellow programmers.

Answer 157

I am constantly trying to break problems down to smaller pieces. I'll have someone tell me they are having a problem with 'A' 'B' and 'C'. I ask for details about 'A', and I get their life story. That's nice, I'll say, but tell me about 'A'. Then they go off and tell me about how 'B' and 'C' are related to 'A'. Great, thanks for that information, but tell me about 'A'. Round and round we go until they tell me about 'A'.

Usually, the problem turns out to be a loose nut between the keyboard and the chair.

Answer 158

I celebrate Christmas eve on Oct 30.

Answer 159

I try to ctrl + shift + f (Auto format in Eclipse) word documents and web pages that I don't feel are properly formatted. I feel pretty stupid when nothing happens.

Answer 160

I find it unacceptable not being able to rollback real-world mistakes back to a previous state/revision.

Still trying to invent real-life version control repository. Time travel is not it.

Answer 161

I always think of decisions as a conditional statement and try to find a way to short-circuit the condition to get out of the question in the first place.

I also take the world's real-life objects and imagine them as programming objects. Like a cat is an animal Cat : Animal that has 4 legs public int Legs {get;}.

Answer 162

People have roles and things are objects. People can apply methods on these objects depending on their role. Ernie can drive a truck if he has a truck driving license.

Answer 163

I've found myself thnking ctrl+alt+del while approaching my locked main door or car sometimes...

Answer 164

I get irritated if hings are needlessly complicated (like tosters or tv sets). I also got a hump ;).

Answer 165

My father asked me write a letter and he said "300 something.." I asked him is 300 integer or a string? he gave me a blank stare :-O

Regards V

Answer 166

I was sitting on the couch watching TV and my roommate at the time (also a programmer) asked me to "scroll over" so that he could sit down.

He also handed me an empty Coke can and asked me to "delete it" for him.

Answer 167

I use programming terms all the time to discuss real-life matters, including the person/computer metaphor (brain is CPU, things I'm doing are processes, etc.). It drives my fiancée crazy, and most of my family don't understand a damn thing I mean.

Answer 168

When I once locked myself out of the house, I wondered why I couldn't rezrov the door.

(Zork reference)

Answer 169

When my wife asks me to take the dishes out of the washing machine I usually do that. As a result of me doing what she asked for she gets annoyed. Why? Because when she asks me to "take the dishes out of the washing machine" she means "pleas do that AND put new dishes in AND clean the surfaces around the sink". So programming has resulted in me processing every request quite literally.

Answer 170

When I heard a discussion on social security numbers in a movie my brain immediately started thinking on how the validation of such a numbre should be done in an application.

Answer 171

< answer >writing emails which have imaginary xml in them< /answer >< snigger / >

Answer 172

bad jokes...

"God is real, unless declared as an integer".

Answer 173

I've become a UI/usability fanatic:

One of the local Finnish gas (petrol, whatever) stations was acquired by another. All was well until they changed the credit card payment systems of the gas pumps. Previously the process went like:

• 1) Credit card in,
• 2) enter pin number (4 numbers) on a numeric keyboard just to the right of the credit card slot,
• 3) select pump by pressing the left or the right flashing button to select the left or the right pump (from the perspective where I'm standing)
• 4) credit card pops out
• 5) start pumping

Now it's like this:

• 1) Card in
• 2) Enter pin number
• 3) wait while nothing happens
• 4) Realize that i have to press a friggin' OK button to proceed
• 5) Select a pump by entering its number on a separate numeric keyboard that's located on top of the payment interface. To enter the correct pump number I have to check what the number is on the pump.
• 6) Credit card pops out
• 7) Star pumping

Way to f'n design an interface!

Answer 174

Not Programming but CYBERHABBIT!..

Whenever I need to look for something (like my keys, eye glasses,remote control etc.) in my house or in my office, I allways think there must be a "find and search" functionality that can be really usefull. But there isn't. :((

Funny but it is true.

Answer 175

Whenever I get into a fight/heated discussion with my girlfriend, I tend to interrupt her to get her to specify exactly what she means with something she just said. She often fails to do so, which results in me reiterating the question until I get an answer that rules out all possible ambiguities. It also results in her being even more furious than before, thus beginning to express herself even in less precise ways. Engage recursion.

Answer 176

Nightmares of programming.

Answer 177

Spelling mess ... this will kill me!

Answer 178

Being a college coder, I tend to take notes in programming syntax now. It is actually a really good habit, as it tends to save me a lot of time.

For example, I might write something like "This != That" or, in history I find myself doing this one, I'll write "while(WWII) {stuff that happened during WWII}.

Funny thing is, people stopped asking to copy my notes. Odd...

Answer 179

Does ADD count? Having projects frequently "switch gears" at my company, and constantly having my thought process interrupted by sudden e-mails, phone calls, meetings, annoying coworkers, and even shiny objects has caused me to feel like I can't pay attention to anything anymore! I rarely even watch 5 minute Youtube videos all the way to the end.

Answer 180

Self-explanatory:

# find /home -name remotecontrol

Answer 181

I tend to critique every UI, every program. And if it's only my head and don't tell - but I freaking often think things like "Why the hell is this button there and not there", "who the hell can possible grasp the meaning of these choice boxes".

Answer 182

Not sure if this is a bad habit or not, but I interrogate store cashier's when they ask for any sort of information when I am purchasing/returning an item.

Q: "What is your postal code (zip code)?"
A: "Now why would you possibly require that? Can I see your privacy policy? May I speak to a manager?"

Q: "Can I see some ID?"
A: "No."

Answer 183

• writing functions as f(x){x^2+2*x+1} instead of f(x)=x^2+2x+1 during math class
• adding additional apostrophes at the end of words that contain and odd number of them like can't'
• wishing Word would synatax highlight things that I wrote.

Answer 184

If I ask a question that's yes/no, I have serious difficulty processing an answer that isn't either one of those.

For instance, Q: "Do you care if I flip the channel?" A: "I'm IMing my sister."

To me, this is like: public bool canFlip() { return "I'm IMing my sister"; }

The return value here is clearly a string, and supposed to be a bool. From the other person's end they're answering the question. From mine they've just committed an invalid cast error. If I ask again and they answer the same, well, that's throwing an exception in a catch block.

Answer 185

I often speak with people (usually my wife) expecting a boolean answer, and they return null, which spreads through the entire conversation and pretty soon we have no idea what we are talking about.

Answer 186

As a debugger... I draw paralells between looking at whats behind what I see in software and what I see in real life...

For example... often times a small square on the screen took 4000 lines of superfluous code to put there... and did all sorts of things behind the scenes...

The innocent question... do you like my top???? well... I just know there is more to that...

Answer 187

Seriously this happened today.My father asked what day of the week today is.I walked all the way to my computer room and looked into my computer's calender and said "Monday" ! I missed 3 calenders which were hanging on the wall , on the way to my computer room :-(

Answer 188

I guess the question could be "what things do you do that your significant other finds annoying or inexplicable?"

One, I have a "search don't sort" philosophy when it comes to putting clothes away. Instead of putting shirts in one drawer, socks in another, etc. I put them in the first available drawer as it's much more efficient to just look when you want something then spend time putting certain things in particular places.

I feel compelled to run the dishwasher and laundry at bedtime, as it's just idle time and those activities do not require human intervention. Like doing a backup at night.

I once started listening to a radio program in the middle of a "top ten" countdown, after they played #1 I was confused as to why they didn't play the top song.

My five year old also begins lists with zero - as in plans for the day: 0 - pick up amanda from her appointment, 1 - go home, 2 - play my lego batman game. I asked him why he started with 0, his answer: "well, if we started with 1, we wouldn't pick up amanda."

Answer 189

When I send an e-mail, write a document or use im I very often end sentences with :wq

Answer 190

I try to compress orders at restaurants by giving all necessary information in one packet. This frequently does not work, because the order taker's task buffer is limited to one piece of data at a time.

Fast Food [Guy|Girl]: Can I take your order?

Me: number 6, BBQ, diet cola, debit.

FFG: What dipping sauce would you like?

Me: BBQ, diet cola, debit.

FFG: What would you like to drink?

Me: Diet Cola, debit.

FFG: Is Pepsi OK?

Me: [ponders Abstract Base Classes and the FFG's lack of Polymorphic Behavior] Sure. I'll pay with my debit card.

FFG: And how will you be paying?

Me: [sighs] debit.

Answer 191

I tend to end sentences with semi-colens, and try to simplify everything and write it in the most efficient matter.... doesn't help with my english essays... also, i use why too many parenthesis

Answer 192

I want a Ctrl+F in real life. I end IM lines with semi colons. I use bitwise logic at all times. Every time I see a pipe (|) I want to add another one, to make it an OR

Worst of all, I test of XSS exploits on almost every site I visit. I have angered more than a few admins when I email them about it.

Answer 193

I optimise everything in my head to come up with better implementations. This frustrates the hell out of me when it comes to things I can't control - like moronic airport security, or train timetables that run appallingly behind schedule.

It ends up being quite a source of stress :/

Answer 194

After prolonged periods of writing C/C++ I find myself hitting ";" at the end of each sentence;
Not so good for documentation;

Answer 195

I try to compile all of my word documents instead of save. I also start counting from 0 a lot of the time :p

Answer 196

In high school, I could spell ANYTHING. Now I'm lucky to spell my own name right.

Answer 197

Seeing mapping everywhere and considering everything as a virtualisation of everything

Answer 198

Whenever I turn on my laptop, I have to fight the urge to get on my work VPN. I also get anxious if I go a day without checking my work email.

Gaming related, after long stints of playing first person shooters, whenever I need to see something far away, I try to zoom in... and then become sad. I can see similar eventually happening due to iPhone/iPod touch pinch/strech functionality.

Answer 199

I find patterns and algorithms for everyone's behavior. They usually come out to be true, specially the ones for my wife and governments. It is seriously disappointing.

Answer 200

My worst is to speech with variables inside my sentences, like

"If you wanna do this thing, go to $yourprovider and ask for $module_for[$action_you_need] "

this sometimes, is useful... .. someothertime make me not understandable..

I also speak about colors using HEX code...

Answer 201

when i write essays and am editing long sections, i find that i type // to comment out the old section.

Answer 202

I'm not sure if this totally came from being a programmer, but I tend to try to fix any problem that is presented to me... which drives my wife crazy.

"I didn't ask you to solve my problem. I just wanted you to listen."

Answer 203

1) Zero is nothing. Zero is also a positive number. Therefore, nothing is a positive number.

2) I sometimes find myself riding my bike in the evening as the sun is getting lower, wondering how I am managing to get such nice graphics at such a perfect frame rate.

3) I have a habit - I don't know if this is a result of my computer use - of never looking continuously at a single object for more than about 10 seconds. It's probably the reason I haven't gone nearsighted from constantly sitting in front of computers. Even if I'm reading a book or concentrating really hard on some nearly unsolvable problem, I glance away every few seconds.

Answer 204

It makes me think about scalability LITERALLY EVERYWHERE. The most common example? When accumulating milk cartons for recycling, my girlfriend just stacks them somewhere, but I know that it won't scale up to dozens of cartons, so I fold them maniacally so that I can collect up to probably 200 cartons in a drawer, before having to take them out. Same for plastic shopping bags: I keep them in another plastic bag, and then I usually reuse them as garbage bags. Normal people just pushes the new bag in the heap, somehow, and in the end no more than 20 bags will fit. I fold them perfectly and can store hundreds of them. Not surprisingly, people don't get it when I claim that my solution "scales better".

Answer 205

I also have another one: if I get a shopping list by my girlfriend, I get to the shop, read the list, and wish she had sorted the items so that I would find them in the order I would walk the aisles of the supermarket. Of course this is not the case, so I mentally sort them to most optimal order.

Answer 206

I used the terms "exactly", atleast" and "atmost" alot. (I got rid of it).

Someone: is there a bag on the table Me: Yes there is atleast one bag on the table (If i cant see the whole table) OR there is exactly one bag on the table

Answer 207

I was out at lunch with my workmates. One of them kept pestering me to answer when a project I was working on would be finished. I kept telling him that it would be finished soon but I could not give him a precise time. He kept on pestering me. Eventually I exclaimed, "Jon, I don't want to parse this subtree again!" Probably a simple, "I'm will not explain this again." would have sufficed.

Answer 208

i want to refactor the government.

Answer 209

People (the normal ones) find me slow at times. It's just they don't know that I thing CODE. When facing a major coding problem, it's not uncommon for me to think about the code when going to sleep, kinda see code in the dreams and code being the very first thought in the morning. This is sick, still can't get rid of it.

Answer 210

This might sound crazy but I think I am more organized because of programing. This is because I have to perform so many different tasks due to programing which includes Podcasts, Videos, Articles, Blogging, Reading etc.

There was no way out except to organized my tasks.

Answer 211

By others (see below), the worst thing is, by far, that I have developed an intriguing dependency on computers and internet. Not because I am a lazy nerd not able to spend my time otherwise. Just because when working in that job, you get used TOO MUCH to these tools.
Probably comparable to a mechanic who forgets about the utility of his bicycle the day his own car breaks down.

other things:

• not beeing able to Ctrl-F in a book,
• searching for Ctrl-Z after having dropped something on the floor,
• spending more time to think of building a tool to simplify a specific task instead of either programming that tool or even do that task right away,
• in consequence, not liking easy jobs that could be even more easy if it could be scripted,
• trying to greasemonkey every awkward webapplication.

edit: oh, forgot about this one: trying to intellisense and do tab-completition in normal text editing and even handwriting (but only when really tired, tho :)

Answer 212

Whenever I need to quote something in an instant message, I often use ''' or """.

So far, I haven't been called out on it

Answer 213

I use the phrase "non-trivial" a lot. Confuses the rest of the family no end.

At a friend's birthday, he was bringing a plate of food to the table but there was no room.

His comment: "Heap overflow"

My response: "There'd be room, but there's too much fragmentation of the free space"

Answer 214

I never say "oh" when I mean "zero" when I have to say a number, even if it obvious that it couldn't be the letter.

Answer 215

Am I the only one here that thinks most of the answers on this thread are confusing cause and effect?

Answer 216

if remember something i want to show to someone i forget that im irl, and automatically think of hyper-linking it to them

Answer 217

As a programmer, i find it hard to survive in the real world without CTRL+F for physical objects(like keys), and text based books

Answer 218

I always want to build a situation before I step through it.

Answer 219

My son asked me to review a paper written for one of his college courses. I started logging "defects" against him.

Answer 220

I also try to get from point a to point b as efficiently as possible, and before starting a task I'll execute it in my head. I will step through everything that I will do and in what order to do things as efficently as possible. I will also be precise in my language and will on accident say things like "whatever the default is" my english as a result becomes very choppy. The final thing that I do is set everything in straight rows, I'm not sure if that's from programming, or from being OCD... I do it in my programs too, every line MUST be same length, unless syntax dictates otherwise.

Answer 221

the universe is deterministic, we just haven't got the manual for the debugger!

Answer 222

I now have no problems starting an argument with any computer operator who insists that I am wrong and they are right because they spent millions on their application.

I take great delight in parsing other's sentences or statements so as to impart the most ambiguity. It makes me feel smarter than the average bear. Yes, I am sick.

Answer 223

I indent everything...

I do maths when I really don't need to...

And (I know it's been said) I regularly nest brackets, sometimes to four or five levels. This is especially prevalent in online forums (I don't do it when writing, but regularly do when typing anything)

I instinctively reduce anything into its smallest possible functionality, and think anything can be done procedurally, which causes problems when any level of multitasking is required (eg when driving, my head is sure it's perfectly acceptable to apply gas, raise clutch then steer - instead of all 3 at once)

I use excessive amounts of whitespace and comment on everything (for example, notice all the brackets at the end of my paragraphs) - surely a side effect of documentation

Answer 224

I now start to analyse everything and anything, and complain if the "requirements" are not complete enough! ;-)

Answer 225

Anytime I would notice interesting "human"behavior, I would try to think off what it would take to program it. I then try to explain all the hidden complexities to my friends, who them want to punch me.

Answer 226

gosub grocerystore

return

Answer 227

Reliance on the "undo" button, e.g. while cooking.

Answer 228

Every time I see someone performing a repetitive task i start thinking about how i could automate it. Even if I'm the one doing it I always think, "A computer would be done by now."

also, i wish life had an 'end' key.

Answer 229

I no longer think of a constant variable as an oxymoron

Answer 230

I see it in how my young children communicate.

For example, my 4 year old wanted me to open the door.

He phrased it as: "Daddy, can you take the door out of lock mode?"

Answer 231

I tend to use cancel, apend, delete etc

Answer 232

When asked to pass the Arial in the kitchen, I got confused... (Ariel is a washing up liquid, apparently)

Answer 233

Let's say somebody asks "does anybody here know about [whatever]?" If I do, I'll say yes, but if I don't, I'll say nothing, and they might complain that I don't reply.

If I said "no", I would be replying for everybody else! And "I don't" is not exactly an answer to that question.

So, since everyone can only answer regarding themselves, failure to get an answer should be understood as "nobody knows".

Actually, in these situations I mostly end up saying "I don't", choosing to be annoyed rather than annoy them.

Answer 234

I keep trying to change my wife's operating system. The current one is unpredictable, flaky and seems to crash frequently. It also costs me a lot in maintenance fees.

I keep trying to reboot her with Ubuntu Linux, but keep getting an error message of the form:

"REDMOND00314: This software is not comaptible with the target firmware. Please hit the men-o pause key to continue".

Help!

Answer 235

I find faults in music (as in - I DEBUG it). And although it can become VERY annoying, it actually helps me as a producer.

For instance, go listen to the song "Fire" from the Ohio Players. It's a great song with great feel --- not to mention, it's groovy. HOWEVER, listen to the bass line as in some places it's fairly naked. There is an OPEN A STRING that rings out!!! Although you can barely hear it, it just sticks out like a sore thumb. It makes me want to kill the bass player (and I AM a bass player).

Answer 236

I can't grasp the punctuation stuff either. I close things in the order I open them. Which is bad, because I like to use parentheses (a lot).

I have also many times made the mistake of believing people (parents, specifically) would be swayed by logic and reason.

Answer 237

While reading all of these comments, I found myself irritated and/or confused with all of the <Control-Z> fanatics out there.

Why the hell would you want to suspend life? I had to think about it for a while and realize that most "programmers" are in Visual Studio and <Control-Z> reverts instead of suspending an operation.

I too, am hyper literal when it comes to parsing orders/inquiries from friends or relatives.

:wq

Answer 238

Being obsessed by things like up-votes and reputation points.

Answer 239

I find it hard to be convinced that something will work if it haven't pass enough testing. Such as in relationship etc. But how much is enough test?

Answer 240

I expect people to speak unambiguously. And include a reference to the context in each line. for eg, if someone says , "I went to meet mr.smith", "he drank coffee", I do not assume the second line to mean "mr smith drank coffee". As a result I keep correcting people. yeah, I'm a lonely guy these days

Answer 241

Bad habit 1: the belief that you can optimize the functionality/usability of just about everything that you can get your hands on.

Which has taught me the hard way that:

• Taking apart kid's toys in front of them is a potential risk to the geek.
• You cannot optimize people, at least not to your liking. No matter who they are.

Bad habit 2: I crave for the source code of the most closed source project ever... Life!

Answer 242

Twenty years ago, when i did a lot of assembly programming, i saw in a lot of car signs and abbreviations assembly instructions and cpu semantics. For instance in a car sign for Aachen, Germany "AC-C 7568", and i see accumulator, or munich "M-OV 8787" apparently stands for the move instruction.

Answer 243

I unit-test my wife, expecting deterministic, solid outputs for a certain input with boundary conditions.

Answer 244

I was frustrated today : I had a crossword question where the clue was 'Collections'. I struggled for a long time to think of non-programming uses of the word. I struggled so hard that I missed the obvious answer : it was 'Arrays'. Apparently Arrays and Collections get used in real-world conversations as well !? Who knew?

Answer 245

I use the word "contiguous" in day to day conversation. It freaks out non-programmers. They say "whaaaaat?"

Answer 246

I like to optimise my day by parallel processing as many things as possible.

Such as starting my PC, run to kitchen and turn on kettle, prepare coffee, run back and sign in to pc, start firefox, pour boiling water, bring coffee over ready for internet news.

Also, cleaning teeth while sat on the toilet literally saves me a minute or two each day.

Answer 247

wondering why alt-tab doesn't magically transport me to the kitchen when i need a cup of tea.

Answer 248

When my GF picked our last license plate number, she took 512. Me: "Yay! power of 2." She: "I took it because the sum of digits is 8 -- a lucky number." conclusion: no matter how damaged you are, it can all work out.

Answer 249

I have started to develop a problem communicating with people who do not deal in logic on a daily basis. It really grates me, because I see the supreme inferiority in them (not inferior to me, but inferior to people who can think).

I have a tendency to believe that ideas are either right or wrong, and most of my friends who are programmers tend to understand and communicate that way as well.

If you say you like x, and I say that I dislike x for reason y, and your brain explodes and you cannot continue conversation, you need to learn to think.

Answer 250

After having worked for over a week with an issue concerning Time Servers (you know, those things that put your PC Clock in sync), I went to the kitchen, looked at the microwave oven clock, noticed it to be ten minutes late, the first thing to cross my mind was 'I wonder how could I activate the NSTP server on this thing'.

Answer 251

I try to refactor everything.

Answer 252

Apparently, I use language differently from other people. I once gave a talk on programming, and it took me all afternoon to figure out why people were sniggering every time I mentioned the use of some public property as a means to expose a class' private members.

Answer 253

Not sure if this would qualify as a bad habit or not but I always have the urge to log everything that happens. I now obsessively take notes during conversations irl just in case I need to examine the logs later.

Answer 254

Making geeky jokes that non-geeks don't understand.

Also, making edits to get points and badges in SO!

Answer 255

Lazy evaluation and Just-in-time :)

Answer 256

I find that when I'm really sick, especially with a high fever, I can't help but see lines of code in my mind and I start feeling if I can only find the bug I'll get better.

Answer 257

Lazy evaluation.

Answer 258

I assume there's an open-source library already written for just about anything IRL and all I have to do is link to it.

"c'mon, how hard could it possibly be? I'm sure it's got its own Wikipedia page already!"

"Dude, somehow I don't think reading the Wikipedia article for brain surgery qualifies you as a doctor."

Answer 259

Back in the days of line numbers I found myself numbering tasks.. if that wasnt bad enough they were numbered by 10's so I could go back and insert on easlily.

10 wake up

15 eat breakfast

20 brush teeth 30 take shower 40 go to work

Answer 260

I expect everything to come with a manual. When RTFM doesn't work in meatspace I get agitated.

Answer 261

Using ocaml's typing in mathematics. My friends do not understand that. In fact, they do not understand typing.

Answer 262

I was looking at a beautiful sunset the other day and caught myself wondering, "I wonder what resolution that is in?" ;-)

Answer 263

I find if I'm in the middle of a big project, I'm working on it whenever my mind isn't focused on something else. It just becomes my default state, even if I'm not anywhere near a computer. It's gotten to the point where I sometimes really have to concentrate to hold a conversation.

Answer 264

Global Optimization! Sometimes I find myself trying to optimize everything I encounter. Even written or spoken phrases I tend to shorten by using more complex words. Shopping and driving are other areas I tend to optimize.

Answer 265

I am extremely uncomfortable with ambiguity.

I always slash my zeros, sevens, and Zs in anything handwritten. I use oxford commas when enumerating any list, and I will always keep sentence punctuation outside of internally quoted sentences.

My most frequently used phrase is "What?"; it is my exasperated request for elaboration or clarification on a question that has any level of ambiguity.

Yes, I annoy even my closest friends.

Answer 266

I search for problems with EVERYTHING. If I don't find the problem with a high level scan, I'll begin to search iteratively (that's a separate trait... everything is iterative). This means that when I'm staring at a beautiful landscape, I'm scanning section by section for something that doesn't belong, or would make the scenery better if it were not there. This is a trait that I had BEFORE programming. When I was in the Boy Scouts, some Army guy talked to us while we were in the field, and the whole time he was there, I kept staring at the camouflaged guy on the ground behind him (a hidden sniper that was supposed to stand up and scare us later on) and looking at the speaker as if he was crazy. The speaker had to stop and ask me what the problem was and I burst his bubble. None of the other scouts even knew he was there.

I am an optimizing machine. When getting the car out of the garage, I told my wife to get the book from the house, so I could continue to lock up the garage because she'd finish about the same time that I would and we'd leave sooner.

Learning the interface to ANYTHING takes 0 seconds. I got my first cell phone the same time that my wife got her third. I had the address book filled out, voice recognition calibrated, and personalizations set while she was entering her third phone book entry. She actually got mad at ME for finishing so quickly.

Answer 267

Waitress: Hi, I'm Christy, and I'm your server!

Me: Hi, I'm gbarry, and I'm your client!

(True story)

Answer 268

Whenever I'm at school I take notes really simplistically but precise at the same time, always look for a better way to do things, ALWAYS try to find the answer to a question (answer == null; <----Syntax Error) And I miss Command-z(always seem to screw up somewhere ;P), Command-f when I cant find essays, AND PLEASE GOD wouldn't life be great if you go Command-control-q-esc? or at least Ctrl-alt-delete or alt-f4.... somwhere along those lines would be great... I miss google too...

Oh and thats the other thing (because I haven't typed enough)

I always make stupid comments like "just undo it" or like "did you save?", "did you update everything" and then my friends laugh because there is no computer involved :P

Also like to say "null" instead of "none" and I comment my speech, AND FINALLY I like to define all variables when I speek ("so all you need to do is get [insert product here], which is like a thing that does this...) and It drives people nutz and they're like "OK I KNOW WHAT THAT IS/KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!!!"

:)

Answer 269

One bad habit I have is that I sometimes "optimize" arithmetic operations using bitwise operations. If someone asks me what 2 * 2 is, I easily think that is 4 because multiplying by 2 is just a bit-shift away... I also do something similar with remainders. For example, the remainder of 7 / 4 is 3 because 7 & 3 results in 3 since the second bit in 3 is 0. I also count using the hexadecimal number system and sometimes Japanese because it helps me to remember what I counted more easily than counting using decimal or English for that matter.

My friends call me weird, but I don't know why...

Answer 270

Every time I write out any maths in real life, I always do it on one line, and use slashes and stars for division and subtraction

Answer 271

If i had to wish for ONE thing. I'd ask for a Ctrl+Z functionality in real life. Also, Google is the answer to everything.

Answer 272

Calling bits of text Strings. That really confuses non-programmers - what's a String?

Answer 273

ive become such a logical person after learning programming that it hurts. its like i feel life might crash if i dont make sense all the time. nice post btw, iwonder if anyone has taken time to study the effect of programming on people. :)

Answer 274

You think you lot have got it bad? I'm 14 years old, and just recently my friend asked:

What is the easiest set of numbers for you to remember?

They go:

1,2,3 etc.

I go:

8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048...

Answer 275

I find myself doing most of the above things, as well as expecting syntax highlighting and hyperlinking in written documents and speech. I do this to such an extent that when I hear someone speaking, I see highlighting and hyperlinking in my mind.

Answer 276

Spelling 'go to' as 'goto' in english documents .... then arguing with non-programmer coworkers that IT IS spelt correctly!

Answer 277

This has actually really happend to me. I was trying to hang a glass picture frame on the wall and accidentally dropped it. And in the shock of the moment, I loudly yelled “Control Z!” Then the glass hit the floor and smashed.

Another thing, I was once searching for a CD on my desk which was quite chaotic. I couldn't find it by shifting the individual books and stacks of papers so I decided to empty it. So I grabbed the mouse and pressed the “Show Desktop” icon in the Windows task bar. I needed a few seconds to realize that one desktop wasn't causally connected to the other: neither was my desk now empty, nor was the CD to be found on my Windows desktop.

Answer 278

While reading these responses, I realized that one of the reasons I like OpenOffice is because it has auto-completion...

Answer 279

Out of habit, I hit CTRL+S every couple minutes in just about every program I use.

Answer 280

I don't trust computers.

Answer 281

I wanted to try a 'psychology trick' of analyzing a tree drawn by a person, e.g. if it has roots, branches, leaves, a horizon, fruits, etc., on a group of computer science student colleagues at my university. I asked one of my colleagues to draw a tree so I can analyze it. He drew a binary tree. Apparently, he wasn't paying attention to my explanation and misunderstood me or he was truly a computer scientist.

Answer 282

I temporize way too much in conversation. Things that anyone else would say as fact, I will still throw a "probably" or "perhaps" on, because I know there could always be that one edge case where a meteor strikes my neighborhood and I wouldn't after all be able to make it out that day to Thanksgiving dinner.

Answer 283

Forget about real life! Even from application to application. I use vi a lot, so I got used to pressing esc after typing every complete thought. In Outlook, I wind up throwing out a lot of mail I compose (esc closes the window. Yes, it prompts you, but it's usually gone before I realize).

Answer 284

I tend to use != to mean not equal in Instant Messages. One time to hilarious effect I stated

Pedophile!=good person

To me that read Pedophile does not equal good person To the reader it read Pedophile! equals good person

Hilarity ensued.

Answer 285

When i want to refresh a page or anything I press ctrl+shift+B (you're supposed to use F5)

When I want to save something I press ctrl+shift+S (to save all but in reality i just need to save one thing)

sometimes I press ctrl+shift+S then automatically press ctrl+shift+B

and this is all done when im not programming(using a compiler).

and now I am starting to have a tendency to end sentences with ; instead of .

and to make it worse, im just in the beginning of my programming career.

Answer 286

I use technical terms when explaining simple things to people. As previously stated, when reading a book i also sometimes think im on a computer for a split second and want to CTRL-F for that small section i read before.

Not so much a habit for this part, but i don't enjoying playing games as much any more since i know the theory behind how some parts are implemented. I'll see a certain screenshot and start thinking of the DirectX implementation in my head.

Answer 287

Well, when I purchase things, people say "Cheque or Savings?" and I say, "Yes" :) Not to self, must remember, human 'OR' is XOR, not OR.

Why can't they just say Cheque exclusive-or Savings? Then I'd get it straight away.

Answer 288

I was writing notes in a meeting, when I noticed that I had popped open a new sheet and written in a google query.

Answer 289

When typing an e-mail or document, I can't help hitting Ctrl+Space expecting intellisense to pop up with a list of appropriate words.

Answer 290

I am always very careful when i use the word "this".

Answer 291

Whenever im writting that something is equal to something else i always use the == operator, and when people dont use it i tend to think that they dont know what they're saying

Answer 292

Having learned to count in binary on my fingers, I now respond "Four to you too!" when someone flips the bird at me. Some people just don't appreciate geeky humour when they are angry.

Answer 293

Whenever I am presented with a repetitive task, I don't mind at first until I realize I can't write a loop to do it.

Answer 294

I think I have to chip in with a few others, and fall back on the whole 'I can't accept ambiguity' thing.

---

Example:

Me: When do you think you'll be ready?

Other: In a little while.

Me: Okay. Now, taking this new information into account: When do you think you'll be ready?

---

The other thing working as a developer has done to me is to completely unhinge me from what normal people know about technology. That itself isn't so bad. The only problem is I always consider the problem so simple that I can easily explain the situation. This always turns out to be a spectacular failure.

---

Other: I'm having trouble with my computer. X isn't working.

Me: You probably need to restart the Y service.

Other: Service? Huh?

Me: Oh. Right. Think of a service as a process running in the background of your operating system. You just have to whip open the admin console, find the Y service, and click reset.

Other: Process? Admin console? Operating system? Huh?

Me: Oh bugger. Right. Click the start menu...

Answer 295

I have become INCREDIBLY impatient. Searching for a certain cold medicine at Walmart is horrible when I can't google it's location.

I hate when my kids still do their own thing after I give them detailed instructions, even tell them what to do in case of a problem (try...catch) and yet they still break my logic. I wish I could unit test my kids.

I find it more and more difficult to work as a team when my situation day to day is sitting in front of a computer that obeys (for the most part) my every command.

Could be worse though. I could be in politics and break the law every day. That would be a bad habit.

Answer 296

I always put a slash through the character zero when I write it. I often get asked whether I've written a zero or a one or simply crossed out a mistake.

Answer 297

Wanting to type vim commands no matter what software I'm using. This does not work well in spreadsheets.

Answer 298

• I had an argument with my Girlfriend about colors. I claimed white is a color and you can produce it by mixing red green and blue with full intensity (255).

• I find it hard to explain to non-programmers what I do. I just say I am a computer geek.

• I binary search for things
• It's easier for me to IM someone sitting behind me at the office or even next to me in the living room than talk to them.
• I often write something like (me!=happy) , forgetting most people don't know "!=" means not equal.
• I Look for Visual studio Shortcuts like Ctrl+I in other software.

Answer 299

Acting like a know-it-all all the time because my coworkers expect me to defend my decisions or lose.

This can be a drawback when dealing with normals.

Answer 300

I get excited by finding BSoDs in the real world.

Answer 301

Let my grandma believe I do pastry as I told her I work on dotNET.

Answer 302

I double click the remote control whenever i finally sit down to watch "tube". Ooops i meant TV.

Answer 303

I'm always trying to think of ways to automatize everything!

Answer 304

I wish i can do ctrl+c ctrl+v on a lot of real world things

Answer 305

A friend and I were on our way to Tucson on a beautiful day, and as we passed Picacho peak, I looked out the open window and marveled, "Wow, look at the resolution..." for which I'm still ridiculed to this day.

Answer 306

Thinking in algorithms. For example, I'll press the button to change the light at a cross walk and while I'm waiting I try and figure out what OS it runs and how the software works.

Also, alot of times I try to optimize real life situations by think about them as a program.

Also, I refer to complete tasks as poping them off the stack

Answer 307

Along the same lines as the grocery store optimizations...

I tend to put items into the cart so that they are unloaded onto the belt in such a way that it will be efficient to bag them.

Never ceases to amaze my wife.

Answer 308

Since most of my time typing is spent coding, I will say that the biggest single bad habit that I have picked up is the inability to write legibly. I use a pen and paper so rarely, that sometimes I have to stop and think about how it is supposed to work.

Answer 309

I consider the number two to be smaller than three, even for large values of two.

Answer 310

My list of bad habits:

• Popping conversations on and off my mental stack: I can remember precisely what I was talking about after going off on tangents. Tends to confuse people.
• Optimising my life: I've optimised my journey to and from work by sitting on the closest chairs to the doors on the train, etc.
• Regularly hitting CTRL+SHIFT+S even when browsing. I've even hit CTRL+Space while in Word.
• Thinking of everything as lists and sets. When I was doing 3D stuff I started seeing everything as points, edges and surfaces.
• Looking up on google to see if there is an optimal solution to a problem. Came in handy when I suddenly got a pair of DMs on which I needed to lace up the boots. Fortunately on the WWW there is always someone with more time on their hands than you.
• Correcting people who say black is their favourite colour.
• I feel a little bit of happiness when my ticket at the deli counter is a power of 2.
• I complained that the house we looked at purchasing was number 62.
• Thinking of optimisations. When I go to the cinema I really want to defrag it!

There's probably others but I need to get back to work!

Answer 311

When my daughter learned to crawl last month, I watched her navigate from one side of the room to a toy on the other side of the room, and I thought "she has an excellent path finding algorithm."

Answer 312

I tend to start writing or even typing everything in CamelCase.

Answer 313

I assume that most other people actually get paid to do what they love just like I do. Its amazing how eager so many people are to work in jobs they hate purely for the cash.

Answer 314

I tend to sleep late coding. This is not good for health.

Answer 315

Everything is a 1 or 0.

Answer 316

I find programming has bled into my nightmares.

A few years ago I started working a long way from home (by my standards at the time). It was a two hour drive each way, plus long hours at the client site.

I noticed after a couple of weeks that my driving, particularly on the trip home, was becoming worse as I was very tired. This began to worry me increasingly. We'd just had a baby and I was terrified of what would happen to my family if I had an accident on the road. I worried to the point of losing sleep - which obviously made things worse. Then the nightmare happened:

Whilst dreaming, I reasoned that as there was only a finite amount of time available to sleep I should spin up multiple copies of myself on several threads simultaneously so I could get my sleep in parallel.

Shortly afterwards we moved home to be closer to the client.

Answer 317

Sometimes I dream in brightly colored fixed-width ASCII fonts on a black background.

Answer 318

I feel the content of the clipboard as an extension of my mind. I can walk around the place, talk to people, and then come back and still "sense" there's something there, waiting to be pasted! In my opinion, it's a good thing though.

Answer 319

Eating. Paying rent.

Answer 320

When I read books, I really miss the automated search functions (CTRL+F or otherwise).

Has anyone mentioned hyperlinks? Boy, I really need it when fliping through various documents.

Using '==' or '!=' and the likes in non-programming (i.e. real world) situations...

Answer 321

I often camelCase words in emails and other communication.

Answer 322

Numbers remind me of things. I just noticed that this question has 131 votes and thought, "Hmm, that's almost like 131072."

Answer 323

Can't find spell checking when writing down something :)

Answer 324

Sometimes I see real-life things as "objects" in an OOP sense ;)

Answer 325

As my partner will tell you, everytihng has to be efficient.

If you cut the onions this way, it will be faster with the same result...

(That one really pisses her off)

And language has to be precise.

Can you get that? What do you want me to get? That, over there? Which thing?

Answer 326

I hate doing anything in real life that doesn't allow me to undo or allow me to make changes after the event, mostly related to mechanics and DIY.

While tiling a bathroom once, I found myself spending too much time thinking about how I could get the job done but have an easy way to swap the tiles out for something else if I changed my mind later.

I won't work on a car/bike if the job means I could end up in a situation where I can't easily "undo" what I've just done, i.e. if I do something and it's permanent it makes me far too uneasy.

Answer 327

When trying to find a solution or anything, I eliminate all possibilities before going forward. For example: "bring me the glasses". I go, open a door, no glasses, open another door, glasses, but I would still continue opening all the doors to be sure there are no other type of glasses. Maybe what I'm seeing are not really glasses for this person. Maybe they are wine glasses, or whiskey glasses. And maybe I'll just find two types of glasses in which case I'll ask which one.

When I'm doing this in front of another person they go crazy. "You already found the glasses!", "No, I'm not 100% sure these are glasses.". At that time they start to back off slowly saying yes. I smile.

Answer 328

When I see something wrong, that is, all the time, I want to report it, file a ticket or something. "They can't fix it if they don't know about it!"

Answer 329

This isn't so much of a habit that I've developed...it's more like everyone around me developed the habit that just because I know how to program, I know everything else about computers (hardware, networking, etc.)!

Answer 330

I find that I want to tag things in real life. This happens most often with sections of books, but another example might be passing a restaurant I'd like to try some time. I want to slap "restaurant, thai, todo, food" on that building.

Answer 331

I dont know what i was thinking when i wrote this. I know i must have been laughing. Maybe i'll rephrase this answer someday.

Answer 332

I know this has been touched on a bit before, but I'm increasingly intolerant of people answering a question with another question, even if it implicitly contains the answer. The assumption is that they know what I'm driving at, and jump there ahead of me. But how do they know why I want to know what I just asked. There could be any number of reasons I wanted to know that.

Just ... answer the question, then I can decide what to do, for whatever reason I might want to do it. I've had my share of frustrating conversations caused by someone's assumption that what I really meant was big X, when all I asked was small x.

And I call that a bad habit, because assumptions are just what people do, and have to do, and most of the time they're ok. But I still get mad.

Answer 333

Last night my wife and I were planning an app on the white board. She erased a spec far too quickly, and I immediately said "Undo!" That, and I recall once in the past reading a book or magazine with somebody, and as they progressed to the next page I asked politely that they "Scroll back."

Like the original poster, I too view God's Green Earth as a massive application comprised of numerous instances of billions of objects all implementing numerous interfaces - it blows my mind that reality is able to process all of these calculations and manage all of this memory so neatly!

Furthermore, my wife finds conversing with me to be annoying at times because I cannot accept a conclusion unless it logically makes sense, or all possible exceptions have been covered. Today she said, "I'll never live in Alabama." I then corrected her, "You mean, 'I do not want to live in Alabama.' We may very well have to live there. I don't plan on it, but it is POSSIBLE." Needless to say, much of our discussions could be much shorter if I could just let that type of stuff go :)

Programming has turned me into a social-reject incapable of having an intelligible conversation with real people :)

Answer 334

Thinking about everything first and foremost in terms of how it can, and therefore will, go wrong. Not as universally appropriate in real life as it is in coding, and tends to make people think of you as a pessimistic curmudgeon.

Answer 335

I keep wishing for a debugger with breakpoints for my cooking.

Answer 336

• A very literal sense of argument, and backtracking to hunt for the logical truth - my girlfriend absolutely hates that.
• I assume that everyone is rational

As to lifestyle bad-habits:

• bad slouchching
• being in a chair and consume a massive amount of caffeine

Answer 337

I organize all of my papers as a stack. It looks unorganized to others, but it makes perfect sense! Papers, houndouts, etc I've recently been given or worked on are always near the top, and as things get older, they sink down. Why others cant understand why this is useful is beyond me...

Answer 338

Is that counting in Zero or One-Indexing?

Is that homework interval 5...9 open or closed?

Answer 339

One of the guys at work regularly says "sadface" and "sigh". I want to bash him over the head with his laptop!

Answer 340

I flinch whenever I see low-resolution images printed onto official-looking paper. (low-res as in you-can-count-the-pixels-low-res, that is)

Answer 341

I get totally irritated when someone uses the word "I think blah blah" when they are guessing something. Either they know it or they dont and should say whatever they exactly mean.

Answer 342

Responding to questions using boolean logic, eg.

Question: What's the opposite of inclusive? Answer: Not inclusive.

Answer 343

I can't understand why everyone doesn't use a version-control system for everything on the computer. I use it for everything from taxes to wedding announcements.

I find that most non-technical folks like the idea (having all your documents versioned with notes), but introducing the concepts is hard for some reason.

Answer 344

i use breadth first search when looking for stuff in my house. if it is important it should be on top of its respective stack. i end up running circles inside my house searching the same stack 14 times before looking at the 2nd element and finding what i wanted.

Answer 345

I get really annoyed at stores/restaurants when I see something that could be optimized by parallelization or better queuing. Imperfection in processes haunts me ^^

Answer 346

Once in college a friend showed up to class late. As he was frantically copying down the notes from the board, the teacher erased them. The next time he looked up, they were gone and I saw him tap his desk with his pinky & thumb on his left hand.

When I asked him why he started laughing. He had absent-mindedly Ctrl-Zed the board to get the lecture notes back.

Answer 347

I do binary search on everything, it works quite well though :)

Answer 348

Working with other people. Computers do exactly what you want and if an error occurs its your fault.

Answer 349

Well, as a programmer, you get used to having arbitrary levels of 'undo'. It is useful sometimes to wipe out what you have done or to stash it away temporarily and start over. Real life just doesn't give you the chance to have a doOver whenever you want it. Sigh.

Answer 350

I always end up using variables in my day to day speech : "I am going to need X widgets."

Answer 351

None except sedentarism, (which aint's programming's "fault" but my own).

I think most of the answer on this topic are forced attempts at drama/humor. Well.. I'm just being a hypocrite, I liked a bunch of them.

Answer 352

Getting in trouble for teaching my nephews how to count in binary.

Answer 353

Like the old joke about good programmers, I often catch myself looking both ways before crossing a one-way street.

Not sure if you would consider that habit "bad".

Answer 354

I see interfaces everywhere i.e.

I think of a chair, a stool, and pants as all implementing the IFitAss interface.

Answer 355

The phrase "I could count them with the fingers of my hand" doesn't suggest scarcity to me.

I say, "cool, there were like 1023 of them".

Answer 356

I can't stand owning ANYTHING that doesn't have preferences!

Answer 357

I find myself wishing people came equipped with a -q or --quiet flag/option.

Answer 358

I read through all of these and honestly, I haven't let programming affect me when I'm not programming. When I'm not programming, i'm either on my dirt bike, in the gym, out skating, or hanging out with friends. Programming hasn't given me any habits outside of programming :)

Answer 359

I try to point at things off the monitor by using the mouse - the person opposite doesn't tend to find it very helpful.

Answer 360

My posture sucks these days... I guess not sitting up straight is a bad habit brought on by programming...

Also, I find myself putting semi-colons at the end of my sentences instead of a period.

The "Last" button on the TV remote isn't nearly flexible enough... it should hold like the last 10 channels so I can line up a comprehensive list of TV shows I need to flick back and forward with. It should work more like Alt-Tab/Alt-Shift-Tab.

Answer 361

One time I was taking a true/false test and I accidentally called it a boolean test.

Answer 362

Lately I've been interupting myself when I use poor boolean grammer.

I don't think... wait, I mean I think that you should not.... It is not that I didn't think, but rather that I thought and it was not appropriate.

Answer 363

Once I tried to explain to my girlfriend that I forget to do things because I use interrupts whilst she uses polling.

It didn't work.

Answer 364

• i really had this situation once: i was taking off my sweater when i realised that it's too cold and i'd better put it on again and before i could logically think the first thought in my mind was: Ctrl+Z.
• i forget (always) that for normal people indexing starts at 1...
• my and my friends' jokes are so full of references to programming that when we meet with other people i'm so embarrassed that they don't understand us and that we look weird ("M i know you're multithreaded but could you stop doing this and just listen to me?", "yyy i'm sorry i got in a neverending loop thinking about this")
• i tend to visualize actions to complete some task as algorithm in pseudo-code
• i'm sooooo precise, i'm obsessed with being precise and logical, i find lines in articles, books, people speeches etc. that are illogical or do not cover all possibilities ("you are: a) a student, b) a working person c) senior" - what about not working, not studying 23-year-old?). i sometimes write sentences like mathematical definitions - so precisly that you can't interpret it in another way, though i know all the people who will be reading this would understand it anyway

Answer 365

Waiting for an informative tooltip to appear when I stare at a photo in a newspaper or magazine...

Answer 366

Every time I see a numeric series that is a power of two I have to count out the rest of that series up to 65536.

I refuse to do anything that can't be turned into an automated process.

When I do math I can't start it with numbers, I have to derive the final F(x) formula and then plug in values.

I never expect people to understand me so I over explain everything, even when they don't care.

Answer 367

When our co-worker announced that she was going to have a child someone said that it was going to be her first RELEASE. :)

Answer 368

I want ctrl+F when reading books. And even when answering an exam paper. I need tab completion when I'm taking down, or anywhere I write or key in something. I always look for closing brackets & semi colons. I want grep built in to my physical life. I need a mute button for people who I don't wanna listen(doesn't come from programming though). Ah... I always look for good indentation. I need loops in real life.... & LIST GOES ON.

Answer 369

A few, but I'll spare everyone. Instead, I'll ask myself what bad habit programming gives to some of the posters in this thread: Feeling superior to non-programmers, significant others, people in food service, anyone who doesn't speak like a machine, and just about anyone else not on the same 'genius' mental plane. It fuels the pompous stigma.

Answer 370

Typing the word "cache" when I mean to type "cash".

Answer 371

I attempt to optimise everything (and for too many factors). Queues, routes, budgets, gym routines etc. I go for maximum paralleling of any task to get it done in the shortest possible time. I cannot stop my brain from doing it. Sometimes it feels like it just thrashes... Never go to the airport with me....

I have this incredible feeling of WRONG that there are certain boring things I have to do over and over (washing, cooking, washing up, cleaning, maintenance) and it nags at me and I keep trying to solve it...

I cannot bear any inefficency or bad design that I can possibly affect (and get upset by those I can't).

I often wonder whether I am like this because I am a programmer, or I am a programmer because I am like this.

Answer 372

When I make a mistake away from the computer - writing the wrong thing in my notepad, spilling milk on my jumper - I instinctively reach for Command-Z.

Not particularly normal, although it does go to show how much my life has improved. I used to reach for Control-Z instead.

Answer 373

My need to understand why something was broken, even when it has magically fixed itself.

Common exchange between me and my girlfriend...

Her: "Hey look, it stopped clicking!"

Me: "That's great ... and now I must take it apart."

Answer 374

I hate it when I'm writing a paper for school and I mess up something and I'm looking for the undo command ;)

Answer 375

Trying to find bugs in everything - not just software (or at least, not just traditional end-user software).

E.g. a couple of years ago I was amused for several minutes by a multi-disc DVD player by trying to break it by pressing buttons in certain sequences at certain times. 'Ok, so did they take into account this case' and so on

Works with car windshield wiper and radio controls, all kinds of electronic kids toys, etc.

Answer 376

ask a person for a declaration before a definition.

Answer 377

Wife: "Can I ask you a question?"

Me: "Yes. Would you like another, more useful one?"

Answer 378

Last Fall my friends and I began playing NCAA Football in anticipation for football season. We play on my Xbox 360 hooked up to my 1080p HDTV, and it looks pretty good.

First game of the season I'm in the student section near the end zone. After the first play I think, "Damn, this is really good resolution." My friends thought I was stupid, but at the time I really thought IRL had great resolution compared to my TV.

Answer 379

• Ample use of double or triple negation in my statements
• Build my arguments base as a chain of True statements (I make sure they agree with me on each statement I make)
• When making hand gestures of "talking" I move my fingers as typing on a keyboard (and sometimes not only when gesturing "talking" :-\ )
• Draw rotated smileys on paper
• Refer to regular mail as "paper e-mail"
• Refer to my house as my Shpping address
• Think on what's the rationale behind every reaction or I see, this has strongly influenced me of my perception of marketing
• When people make plans or find solutions I always calculate their algorithm's complexity
• It's hard for me to make a 100% positive statement, becuase I always contemplate an edge case (or bug) I'm not contemplating.
• Can't stand human grep

Answer 380

I always write ".." instead of "..." cause I consider the third dot redundant

Answer 381

I try to work 24 hours a day - like my computers. Then I get annoyed by the simple fact that I take 8 hours to reboot. Meanwhile my computer can work for weeks and weeks without a reboot (unless a software update comes along).

Then it gets worse, it reboots in less than a minute looking like it's just woken up refreshed for another couple of months of work.

Why can't I do that - it so frigin' annoying.

And yes Virginia this topic does annoy my wife, children, parents...

Answer 382

I think i'm most acutely aware of concurrency. An example from the other day.

My room-mate and I went to subway for lunch. I asked for a sandwich, yes I wanted it toasted. The 'sandwich artist' then asked my roommate about his sandwich.

"Aren't you going to toast it?"

"Yes, toasted."

Silence, as he waits for my roommate to talk about the sandwich he'll be ordering.

See, it doesn't take all that long for the sandwich to toast. In the time he's preparing my roommates sandwich, my sandwich could be in the toaster, and 10-20 seconds later, when my roommate's sandwich would be ready for toasting, mine would be suitably crispier and ready to be finished off.

This fairly simple pipeline optimization iritated me for it's absence, and I became quite short with the guy.

Answer 383

Many times, I miss having search interface while reading book/newspaper to locate to particular keywords and with color highlighted as well ...

Answer 384

I write dates on forms as "2009-01-30" rather than anything 'human readable'

Answer 385

Not from programming, but from websurfing and blogging, working online 6-10 hourd a day:

Whenever I'm reading a book, magazine, newspaper or just a printed piece of paper, y click with my finger on anything underlined. Anything. And I may click again 5 minutes later if re-reading something!

Answer 386

Because of programming,

• I learnt English, typically American English. e.g. not Initialise() but Initialize()
• I wished there was a button on the rubbish bin in the Kitchen.
• There are some biscuits and my hair in my keyboard.
• I hold mouse longer than my wife' hand.

Answer 387

I tried a few times (at the end of long nights) to switch off my monitor by clicking the on/off button with the mouse (failing to reach it due to screen bounds).

Answer 388

I try everything and try to handle the exceptions!

Answer 389

Not exactly programming, but I write a fair amount of code to manipulate 3D objects and I do a fair amount with virtual reality type systems too. So whenever I'm watching a video on the computer I often find myself reaching for the Ctrl-Shirt buttons to move the camera around the scene before before remembering that I can't

Answer 390

I didn't get married until I was 37.

(late binding)

Answer 391

I find that when I go grocery shopping with my wife that after she puts the groceries on the checkout conveyor (in no particular order), I begin bubble-sorting them from least break-breakable to most breakable, and sub-grouping cold, canned, boxed, and personal products so that they end up bagged in the cart in a sensible manner and unload more easily at home. Why she doesn't load them that way to being with I have no idea... :)

Answer 392

My writing has gotten worse. Too detailed now. Too wordy.

I used to write concise, interesting and stylish reports and web posts that would grab my reader's attention and adoration when I was in high school. I was one of the best writers in my class.

Now, unless, I take significant time to edit (and even then it doesn't always help) I write novellas of emails to co-workers trying to explain every aspect and avenue of a problem and situation to let them see my full perspective. A brief email for me is a paragraph. I just think of everything and believe omitting key information is a form of lying. But often people don't have the patience to read my verbosity. So, my current goal is to shorten it up a bit.

Definitely a result of me being a programmer/engineer.

Answer 393

Not so much because of programming as it is a result of continuous computer usage, but.... I keep my taskbar on autohide, no matter what system I'm using. I like my screen real estate. When I want to check the time, I move the mouse to bottom of my screen to pop up the taskbar and see the clock. Which is all well and good until I half-woke from sleep in the middle of the night and rather than roll over to see the time on the digital clock, I found myself trying to mentally move a mouse cursor to the bottom of the "screen" I was seeing in my half-sleep so I could check the time. This has happened to me at least once a week since.

Answer 394

When I worked as an undergrad in a tiny office with 2 other developers we also spoke in "or die" propositions. "Die" also became a common way of commanding someone to shut up, or stop working so we could go have lunch (or Play Quake 2, whatever).

I mentally shift-ctrl-s when I am writing on paper and get to the end of a page.

And to this day when I encounter a bug report that can't be accounted for I always ask "did s/he try rebooting the user?"

Answer 395

Telling my roommate that the washing machine threw an UnbalancedLoadException and getting a puzzled look

Answer 396

You know how the label on the shampoo bottle reads?

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I'm still washing my hair. I can't stop.

Answer 397

I have a tendency to get hung up when people describe things as being "twice as [slow/small/cheap/etc]".

I've also become very critical of kids' shows.

I was watching Teletubbies with my baby (8 months old today) last week. There was a segment that counted the Teletubbies, putting each character on the screen and then taking them off ( 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1). I was quite irritated that they didn't begin and end at zero.

There's a segment of Sesame Street where Big Bird goes about searching for a shape that "has four sides, all sides the same." At the end of the segment we're told that such a shape is a square. That drives me nuts.

Answer 398

The ability to question my wife has caused me more headaches than programming is worth. I've taken so many Aspirins that my blood can't get any thinner.

Answer 399

I think the worst is when people associate unrelated events.

Q: Can you do the dishes so I can do the laundry?
A: What? One has nothing to do with the other.

How about this... Q: Can you go buy some detergent so I can do the laundry? A: Yes.

Also, I tend to enumerate the acceptable responses to any question I ask. An answer outside that, tends to result in an error.

Answer 400

A couple times I've referred to taking out the garbage as "deleting the trash." I've also merge sorted by length (luckily they're all black so there was no need to make the sort more complex) all of the socks when putting away laundry to find matching pairs faster.

Answer 401

I when driving my car at night I put my lights on high beam and then expect to be able to go brighter and brighter, a nice round number like 16 brightness levels will do.

In the same way I expect to be able to zoom in on stuff in real life.

Answer 402

I give instructions to people as if it were code. They always fail. For instance, Dear X, While the system is not loaded, please start processing the files for xx project. Check whether there are files that are still being processed from a previous run. If the system is clear, start processing the files starting with xxy.

Result: When they start the system is not loaded, the system does get loaded, they keep processing. Some of the processes fail. Now there are "files still processing" but there weren't there when they started, so they keep on going. Crash

Answer 403

Hey, davethegr8, check this out, I'm about to "grep for my keys":

[mcintire@yossarian mcintire]# sudo find /home/ -type f | grep -e ".pub$"
/home/cliffm/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
/home/mcintire/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
/home/mcintire/svn_work/mcintire_home/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
/home/mcintire/svn_work/cliffm_home/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
[mcintire@yossarian mcintire]#

Found them! (In 2 places, each!) Redundancy, that's an engineering theme in my life. I can't imagine how pre-computing peoples lived without these tools of limited omniscience to inform them. I guess that's why they call everything before 1900 "the dark ages".

Answer 404

OK, "real world" example:

I read-write cache, all the time. For example, I have a place for everything, and I also have places for things which are not in their correct places. This caching system is 4 levels deep:

• I have a "using right now" bin, to collect my in-use mess within arm's reach.

• I have a "recently used" bin in the corner, because something I've used recently, I'll probably need again soon.

• I also have a "move this outside of my room" bin for things that I'm done using.

• And I have a "take to storage" area, for things that I won't need for a long time, to free up house-space resources.

Hmmm, that last example wasn't a "bad habit", sorry to all you literalist programmers. I'm a sysadmin, can you tell? ;)

Answer 405

Hating people in management positions. Broke up with my girlfriend because she got her management degree last year. 5 years down the drain.

Answer 406

1. i no longer see the point to capitalization and punctuation (notice how i started this sentence with i instead of I).

2. i look at parking signs and think to myself "thats bad usability". (notice its thats rather then that's).

Answer 407

I think I had all the bad habits listed here to begin with, so I naturally gravitated towards programming. :)

Answer 408

As a linux geek i often scramble infront of a Windows mashine as it is the most hated thing for me to always point and click on those friggin icons and i always search for a shortcut in everything i often think about quotes made by famous developers in everyday life and moments they would fit to. I sometimes do little scratches on my school folders of scripts and code files i think of.... i sometimes write or think in 1337....

Answer 409

I have a tendency to think there is undo/redo for everything.

Answer 410

I suffer from Garbage Collector disease since I started programming in a managed environment :P :

I won't pick up papers and things that should be thrown away from my desk until it gets 2/3 full or something.

Answer 411

I'm always angry when someone says to me : "Hey you are programmer, can you program my TV/DVD ?"

Answer 412

it certainly changed the meaning of half of my vocabulary or at least first association.
Do you still remember what these words meant to you BEFORE?

• code - before: some cipher, now: to code
• list - used to be a shopping list
• trees
• memory
• exception - like exception from a rule
• inheritance
• child-parent relationship
• colouring (graphs)
• queue
• container, control, form
  and so many more.
  I really had to think carrefully to find out what some of these words would mean for me i wasn't a programmer.

Answer 413

I tend to say words that don't exist, like "char" (as in charbroiled) and "varchar" (as in var car).

Answer 414

I say/write "if" too much!

Answer 415

+1 @ fast food ordering, though I'm not sure that has anything to do with being a programmer per se. I just want to complete the task of ordering my food as efficiently as possible.. but yeah, it usually has an adverse effect :(

<Thorarin> Oh, that reminds me, speakers are on and kinda loud :)
<Thorarin> catch (NeighbourQQException) { }
<Zlut> door.Open();
<Zlut> throw neighbour;

Answer 416

I end sentances with semicolons... Also i use semicolons in papers when i would never use them before. I excessively use parentheses too;

Answer 417

Everytime I see two mirrors placed towards each other I wonder why the infinite loop isn't locking everything up. Is reality multithreaded?

Answer 418

I wonder why my parents take so long to open GTalk. I also wonder what the hell are they doing with a Cyrix 800!

Answer 419

cant spell go to right...always: goto

i cant stop.

Answer 420

When i read an article in a newspaper, i'm looking for the comments link.

Answer 421

When a website fails to function correcly I load up FireBug and Tamper Data...

Answer 422

Speaking Hungarian

Note: except in Hungary I would guess, but don't know

Answer 423

When i am desperately searching anything... i feel if there was Google search and that thing should appear right in front of my eyes.. I hate hard-copy books... i feel turning the page or using a bookmark is a bane! ...and many more

Answer 424

my notes now look like python code

main point:  
    sub point

Answer 425

I want an undo button!

Answer 426

I'm getting impatient and annoyed when watching a 'regular' person working on a computer. They are soo... slow, they can't find the right functions on time, don't use shortcuts. Did you know that you can copy and paste the text of a document to another document, by..

• dragging the scrollbar to the top
• placing the cursor at the start of the document
• Hold shift
• dragging the scrollbar to the bottom
• placing the cursor at the end of the document
• Release shift
• Go to the Edit menu
• Select Copy
• Select the other document on the taskbar
• Drag the scrollbar to the bottom
• Placing the cursor at the end of the document
• Go to the Edit menu
• Click paste?

Instead of..

• Ctrl+A
• Ctrl+C
• Alt+Tab
• Ctrl+End
• Ctrl+V

Sometimes I just want to grab the keyboard and mouse from them and do it my way.

Answer 427

Counting units in hexadecimal makes it easier for me to remember what number I stopped at before I was interrupted. Then I just do the arithmetic to convert it to decimal. Of course, I don't do this for money... After all, I might make a rather costly mistake during conversion...

Answer 428

I constantly type <Esc> :wq <Enter> into Word documents or Google. Nothing interesting happens, and it certainly doesn't save anything.

Answer 429

My fiancée goes nuts about my systematic approach to everything I do at home, and I go nuts about the fact that she doesn't do things the same way every time. It doesn't make any sense! Why would you put the salt in one press tonight, and then put it in a completely different press tomorrow?! I use exact quantities of EVERYTHING when I'm cooking, as defined on the packet (technical specification), and cook it for exactly the specified length of time.

I thought I was crazy before I found this site. It turns out I'm just an ordinary programmer :-)

Answer 430

I live in Poland, but due to fact, that code I write is de-facto english-based it feels more natural to use english words in normal conversations as well. I also get annoyed when someone uses translated version of common words (Solution (VS) -> Solucja), (event (C# keyword) -> zdarzenie) etc.

Answer 431

When I should be relaxing I'm thinking about that piece of code that didn't work they way I wanted it to and trying to figure out the solution.

More times than not programming(and related things) consumes my mind.

Answer 432

I tend to answer questions, that have a negative in it, the wrong way:

Mom: "Don't you want a cup of tea?" Me: "Yes. I don't want a cup of tea."

Answer 433

physical problems ... on neck ,on eyes i got aches...

Answer 434

When typing emails, documents or whatever, I sometimes end the sentence with ;

Answer 435

was once playing grand theft auto and my niece asked me to show here how to use the dish washer. not wanting to loose full attention of my game i unknowingly and hastily told her to "COMPILE AND RUN" THE DISHES... to be sure she got the right instructions she asked "run what?" and I answered "F5... F5... F5"!!!

She is now a programmer so we understand each other more nowadays.

Answer 436

I cannot deal with vague answers to questions.

When driving in a car:

She: turn over there.

Me: where?

She: Over there.

Me: At the light?

She: No (now angry) over there - turn into the mall entrance.

Answer 437

i some times want to debug Greek bureaucracy to find where the problem really lies.

Answer 438

I get blank looks from non-developers when I try to convince people that only one of the Hot and Cold taps (faucets) in the bathroom/kitchen needs to be labelled...and usually told that I need to get out more.

Answer 439

I tend to over-over-over-metaphorize when I am speaking, assuming that the other person(s) has(have) the same references (imports) than me on their brains: “Yeah, it’s a Memento-meets-Matrix-Reloaded with a touch of 1984 kind of situation”. Maven for the brain, anyone?

Answer 440

I can't make everything in my life fit into a primitive data type.

• bool
• int
• string
• "crazy people"

Answer 441

As a linux user, who has to use Windows at work, And has managed to convince management that Firefox is actually better, I occasionally have to run Internet explorer to access the corporate website.

I Have no idea how normal people run it. Never figured out where it lives. Not a major problem, though.

<WinKey> <R> iexplore.exe <Enter>

Same with calc.exe, notepad.exe and a few others. But Yah, mainly iexplore

Answer 442

Every time I see a queue with those post & rope line setups (you know... these things) I want to close off the end and make it a stack instead.

Answer 443

I once wished my car was open sourced, so that someone else or I could fix that annoying noise. You know, the one you still don't know where it comes from at the back.

Answer 444

I wish i could ctrl-s real-life conversations just to prove to some people they are inconsistent and twist the truth all the time; When I was younger I tried to record conversations (secretly) but the lack of body language and facial expressions made the recordings pretty useless :( Nowadays i store those people in the "don't bother/faulty" container hehehe;

[Thank science we now have IM];

Answer 445

I tend to assume programmer mistakes/errors (like compilation/link/test errors) are equivalent to real world errors, like being a bit late for a meeting, forgetting to send a snail-mail letter, nailing stuff together or just doing things that might break, you know, real stuff.

Mistakes, even fatal (BSOD) in my world, aren't near as fatal as the real. Coding for 8 hours a day for 10 years doesn't help with that distinction.

Answer 446

I had to make a list of 10 things the other day, and without even thinking about it, numbered it 0 to 9.

Similarly I also have started getting cranky at my keyboard for having the number keys start with 1...I think I broke somthing...

Answer 447

After seeing the pure logic, predictability and efficiency of programming I am continually annoyed at how complicated and inefficient interactions with other humans are.

Answer 448

I don't go to bed when I should ..

Answer 449

Saying to my Girlfriend "Stop throwing exceptions that I'm not willing to catch."

Answer 450

whenever planning something in real life, I always say "we are only going to find that out at runtime". No one really gets it but I think they do.

Answer 451

After staring at a computer screen for hours on end, at times I am impressed by the vivid colors around me (black, white, and the occasional intellisense colors are less prevalent in everyday life... from what I hear)

Answer 452

Not sleeping. Oh and I kid you not...every time I type "myself", I accidentally type mysql

Answer 453

XOR vs OR drives me crazy.

I ignore all warnings and only pay attention to errors.

Answer 454

Moving my hand as if looking for a mouse when I want to point at a calendar on the wall.

Answer 455

I think everything in terms of open source and free software.

I also tend to count from 0 and make geeky jokes and comments and later saying it was trivial.

Answer 456

I was refining my keyboard shortcuts when I tried to remember which one turns the light on.

Answer 457

Sometimes i wish i can select some people then press DELETE key to delete them :D Also i want a CTRL-Z so i can undo stuff :D

Answer 458

In Word.exe instead of Ctrl + M , pressing Tab and buff the whole paragraph disappeared

Woke up at 03:00 AM realizing there is a bug in the code just went to production which will brake the whole shit ...

Woke up at 03:00 AM realizing that "HEUREKA" it has to be done that way and even going down to code straight away ..

Get a new cool idea just before getting sleep. Not sleeping all night since the brain runs the program and debugs it ...

Watching people's movements in the public areas ( train , metro ) associating them with debugging of the "current cool code" and accidentally bumping or doing something clumsy - yep it is embarrassing!

Answer 459

When some physical object breaks, like one of my table chairs, I find myself thinking that the first solution is to Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V one of the good chairs...

EDIT: Just the other day I was watching someone use two microwaves at once in our break room and the first thing I thought of was that he was good at multi-threading...

Answer 460

I wish i could "kill dash nine" all dishonest politicians.

Answer 461

It drives me crazy when I realize that there is no year zero. Then we could just say "the year -200," rather than "the year 201 BC." Then we wouldn't even have that stupid BC/AD vs BCE/CE argument!

What is even worse is when, for example, people have a list of 100 items grouped into 10s, and I see 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, etc. I get very angry at anyone who does this. I tell tell them, "number them as 00-09, 10-19, 20-29, etc.!" And then I get even more angry when they think that makes no sense.

Answer 462

When looking for something in the real world first thing on my mind is search box with blinking cursor...Would be so much easier ;)

Answer 463

I always stay up way too late!

Answer 464

I know I've been writing too much Java code when I start ending my sentences like this;

Answer 465

I have dreams in which I'm trying to solve real-life problems (my son doesn't want to his homework, for example) with code. Just when I think I've got this cool, elegant algorithm to tackle it, some exception scenario (my son is not programmable) emerges. So, in my dream, I try some way to handle the exception but then the exceptions begin to grow exponentially and it all just spirals out of control.

Gee, if it were only that simple...

Answer 466

When I receive instructions such as:

Go to the shop and buy a loaf of bread. If they have free-range eggs, buy 10.

I'd return home from shopping with 10 loaves of bread.

Answer 467

Dammit, I do at least half of these things!

Answer 468

I can work with base-2 easier than base-10 at times. I get frustrated watching people do things with computers inefficiently. I use != while taking notes rather than =/= .

My sentences (written or typed) use a lot of brackets (such as this note here (which I did right now (sometimes they end up looking like LISP at the end (I have never programmed LISP though (Although I thought about learning, but then didn't (I learned C# instead)))))).

I consider 60 wpm an average typing speed. Most of my friends consider 30 average.

Answer 469

As has been mentioned a couple of times, I use far too many parenthesis (certainly when writing, but also when speaking (I'll go off on a side note before returning to my main point)).

I've never really gotten complaints, but I feel like if I just had better sentence structure, it would not be necessary.

Answer 470

There are a few bad habits, but my favorite is: I answer "or" questions with "Yes".

Answer 471

1. I drive and think about code. You see, the driving in big cities is so borring that I only need partial visual sensation to make it to the home - when something big dark is in front of me, press the break, when it is not there, press the gass. (what ? man are not multitasking) :P

2. I never listen to my wife or pretty much anybody else when I am programming (this may be a good thing)

3. I miss some important events in my life.

4. I tend to hang out with other nerds, like you guys here, lol :P (this is definitelly bad, I call this forum thingie "hanging out", zomg )

EDIT:

O yeah. I play World of Warcraft and constantly catch myself programming in Lua in chat instead of relaxing and killing monsters...

Answer 472

No sports ;)

No stairs if an elevator is available - the simplest solution

Answer 473

being in a constant sleep deprived caffeinated state and thinking it must be normal

Answer 474

I've found that in general conversation, I -

• refer to repeated tasks as "iterations"
• use "delta" in sentences; "Well, we've got everything we need to make spaghetti, delta some garlic."
• quantify the difficulty of things as "trivial" and "non-trivial"
• describe the process of going through stuff in the mailbox to sort out good stuff from junk as "parsing the mail"
• "ping" people to see if they're available
• use "WTF" and "FMH" as exclamations

Answer 475

Can't claim this one for myself. I invited some friends to a party. One of them, a networking wiz, called me at home. When I answered the phone I heard

ACK (click)

Technically all he told me was he GOT the invite, but we enjoyed his company nonetheless.

Answer 476

I try to evaluate parentheticals in written text (like this) and get upset when it doesn't work.

Answer 477

Since a few years I've alway this strong feeling that something goes wrong.

So I always say:

This should work, but no guarantee!

It's sometimes funny when you sit in an airplane, talk about computer bugs and you feel something inside of you (there isn't an application without mistakes) ;)

Answer 478

I always try to (micro-)optimize everything!

Answer 479

In the delirium between deep sleep and consciousness I tend to think that everything in the world can be programmed, and I end up trying to solve all my problems in code.

I have several small children and if one of them starts crying during the night, for instance, I may end up thinking about ways I can program this problem away. Our newborn baby girl apparently does not come with a very good ruby interpreter.

Answer 480

Getting frustrated at not being able to 'Undo' what I erased on my whiteboard.

Answer 481

Answering WORKSFORME or WONTFIX to "friends/relatives/spouses" when assigned chores around the house. Wives and girlfriends never like those types of responses, although bugzilla is completely fine with them. I think there is probably something wrong with "friends/relatives/spouses" so maybe there should be a bug to track that.

Answer 482

Sometimes I find I wish I could debug my life (set breakpoints, move the execution point around, etc!)

Answer 483

I thought the primary colors were red, blue, and green.

Answer 484

I'm losing the ability to write manually because I've been typing everything for so long. I can no longer handwrite except for my signature. My standard writing sucks as well, and I have to keep it in all caps for it to be legible. And it all takes soooo much longer than typing.

Also, I've referred to cities as being not "user-friendly" because the street signs are hidden or missing.

Answer 485

Sometimes I wish I could quick sort some of the laundry, dishes, or clutter in my home.

One of my favorites was when I was asked what I was doing, my response was, "compiling diner".

Answer 486

Worst habit, trying to press Ctrl+S each 5 minutes, even without a keyboard!

Answer 487

I can't function without being able to look things up on the search engine (google of course)!

Answer 488

laziness is a good thing

Answer 489

I think the most obvious one for me is to use nested parentheses in written English. I'll avoid the temptation right now though :o)

Answer 490

I now divide every number larger than 1024 by 1024 as if it equals 1000. Very odd.

Answer 491

Well...

• Whenever someone ask me something, I give them a detailed step-by-step answer, and that tends to exasperate people
• I try to find patterns in almost everything I see, and then I write a function in my mind to optimize it (finding patterns in discotheque-lights is particularly sad)
• I hate ambiguous questions/answers
• I can't write (not even handwrite) spanish with spanish characters (á é í ó ú ñ) because I don't use them in my code
• I usually talk with programming terms in regular conversations

Answer 492

• When I posting comments in the forums, I don't use [QUOTE] tag, instead use '/*' or '//'. ;-)
• Sometimes when I watching a TV or walking on the street, I see a some advertisement, in my mind I asked question how it's made, and how can I made it with Photoshop. For example, Sprite logo: -- drop shadow; black storke, 1px; & etc...

Answer 493

If something goes wrong:
Before anything...
..."restart" and see if it is reproducible!

Answer 494

Finishing sentances with ;

I spend waaay to much time going through reports correcting that!

Answer 495

I think my main bad habit I got from my job as a developer is the relevancy filter.

I tend to zone out really quickly, becoming bored, when people are talking about something that my brain for some reason does not think to be "relevant". I find it hard to find other people's lives interesting…

Answer 496

When asked a question on class I always give precise, neatly packed up answers consisting of only a couple of sentences but including a maximum of information, as opposed to my classmates who seem to enjoy giving answers that are as diffused, wishy-washy and as long as possible, while revealing hardly any new facts but simply repeating what other people said the other way round. Sadly, my teachers don't really appreciate the way I do it.

Answer 497

I notice that I apply the Rules of Optimization to every day life. I usually will just apply any silly process to complete a task without much regard as to where It could be improved.

while not dishwasher_is_full():
    walk_into_living_room()
    pick_up_a_dish()
    walk_into_kitchen()
    if sink_is_full():
        while sink_has_dishes():
            put_dish_in_dishwasher()
            pick_up_a_dish()
    else:
        put_dish_in_sink()
start_dishwasher()

Obviously not good, but I don't really have a profile_chores tool, and n has never grown so large as to require significant refactoring.

Answer 498

More on the undo theme - at my last annual vision exam they dialated my eyes. After the exam I asked for the 'undo drops.'

Answer 499

I try to do imaginary SQL queries in my head. For example if I go into a restaurant, I'll look at the menu and think "SELECT * FROM Menu WHERE Quality='Yummy' AND Spicy='Mild' ORDER BY Price ASC".

Answer 500

I catch myself forming Google search queries during the day.

• Looking at a nice porsche passing by: "cheapest sports car reviews"
• Walking during a nice summer day: "best camping spots toronto"
• Entering my apt. building: "anti-smoking laws ontario"

Answer 501

youKnowYouHaveBeenCodingTooMuchWhenYouForgetSpacesAndCamelCaseTheWords; alsoWhenYouEndThoseSentencesWithSemiColonsOrParentheses()

Answer 502

Sometimes I treat my desk as if it has a garbage collector. Wishful thinking, I suppose.

Answer 503

I can't drive a car.

Everytime I drive, my brain keeps going back to that piece of code which I'm working on.

Answer 504

Not actually programming related but from IT company

When go back to home, I try to open Door with Access card... Insted of Knocking it or using key

Answer 505

Some times I put underscores_instead_of_spaces in handwritten text

Answer 506

• Thinking about colors in terms of Red, Green and Blue
• Insisting the fastest way to accomplish anything computer related is to write a computer program to do it for me
• Looking everything up

Answer 507

I often wonder what non-computer minded people do in their spare time

Answer 508

#ifdef sarcasm
It hasn't affected me at all.
#endif

Answer 509

Algorithm think, every simples task becomes lines of code.

Raize Event AlarmRing

OnAlarmRing do

Test if awake return "damn clock" Test if sleep enough return "false" Execute(AlarmOff) Execute(TurAround) Sleep(600000)

End OnAlarmRing

Raize Event WifeCrazy

OnWifeCrazy do No Testing Execute(Jump) Execute(Run)

End OnWifeCrazy

Raize ForgotEverything

OnForgotEverything do

Execute(TurnOffThePhone)

End OnForgotEverything

Answer 510

try to copy paste something u seen in real life like on television if see something interesting I would like to copy it.........but :( wont be able to do it

Answer 511

I'm sure someone has mentioned it by this point, but it drives me crazy when I can't get a direct answer out of someone.

Example:

Me: Do you know if it's going to be cold today?

Them: I don't think so.

Me: Well, do you think it would be a good idea to bring a jacket? Maybe it's supposed to rain or something? Snow? Hail?

Them: I don't know.

Me: Look, you went outside earlier for a run, right?

Them: Well, yeah.

Me: How was it?

Them: Warm.

Ack!

It also bothers me when I'll try to be thinking of a basic example to explain something, but people get too caught up with minor details of how my example would work in reality.

Me: Okay, so...say you have House X. Three stories tall and...

Them: How many people live in the house?

Me: Er, no one.

Them: Oh. Well...how much does it cost to own? Must be pretty terrible house if no one lives there!

Me: It's not for sale. Okay? The important part is that if you needed to paint this house, you would need y cans of paint. You could figure this out by...

Them: What's with all these stupid namen? "House X"? "Can y"? Those are dumb names, if you ask me.

Me: Well, I'm not asking you. You asked me for help.

Answer 512

IN CHAT

Friend: U thr? Me: 1

Answer 513

I (some times(especially when explaining some ideas(which happens a lot at work))) use nested brackets in my writing...

Answer 514

I nearly got my banck account closed because that phone bot asked me for the "position 1" of my password. And I, for three times in a row, gave him the second number in my password, getting more angry each time the bot told me the number was wrong. It was not until my last chance before being kicked out that I realized that, in real life, positions, sizes and all of these really start at 1 (isn't it annoying?).

By the way, I feel I agree with 90% of the answers here...

Answer 515

After too many years of working on a business system under a lousy manager, I inevitably write "contract" when I mean to write "contact" and "Theresa" when I mean to write "bitch."

Answer 516

I feel like starting daily conversations with 0x

Answer 517

I have found myself "tabbing in" a complex e-mail to my wife for readability only to realize that it looks ridiculous to non-coders.

Answer 518

I'm happier when navigating if I'm in error by 90º, 180º or 270º than if I'm out by <10º

Nice, large, round errors are much easier to debug in my world.

Also, when asked what sandwich I want and I'm not sure - I'll usually reply 'a(dot)generic sandwich' - it's part of a old and trusted javascript libary I use and the term has never quite left me.

Answer 519

Not strictly programming-related, but I once tried to dial an IP address on a phone. I got as far as the first octet before giving up when I couldn't find the decimal separator.

Answer 520

Dreaming about programming something and waking up thinking, damn I didn't save! I have done this more than once. Dreams need an 'Export to Video' option.

Overanalyzing EVERYTHING. Finding flaws and wanting/trying to fix them.

I tend to correct people a lot. I can't let exceptions go running around uncaught. I have learned to make my corrections a bit more subtle, but it still annoys people.

Being able to sit for long periods of time with nothing to do. e.g. Waiting at the DMV, or just waiting in a public place in general.

I also do the life-optimization thing. but mine are mostly picking the most effective route somewhere, or combining tasks in an effort to reduce... effort.

Answer 521

1. Looking for clock in bottom right while reading newspapers

2. One time, while I was writing an email, I commented paragraph of text instead of deleting it :)

Answer 522

I once noted that I used parentheses around sin/cos functions and the word PI instead of the symbol in the math class while writing on the blackboard..

The teacher was a little bit inrritated..He should be glad that I didn't start to end each formula with a semicolon!

Answer 523

I want to hit Ctrl-Space to help me remember the name of something I'm trying to explain to someone.

Answer 524

When someone uses "and/or" in a sentence it sounds awkward to me, because it can always be replaced with just "or" (according to Boolean logic) :)

Answer 525

Debugging firmware of household and office appliances, like elevators (what model does it use to answer requests and why doesn't it use a more efficient method) and coffee machines (what happens, if I purchase a "cup only" with the "without cup" option, or if I select a "milk only" with a "more milk" option, or what is the result of a "cup only" with "more milk", etc.). The lack of reason in the first and the results of the second activity never fail to amuse me.

Answer 526

I usually find myself trying to google about why my internet connection is gone...

Answer 527

I always draw a situation and try to think of solution (in practically every heavier situation) :) I can't live without pen & paper.

Answer 528

i think of things either right or wrong... too absolute. i consider something either to be true or either false. either it is a yes or a no. for example, if you ask a girl to go for a walk and she says "no", doesn't it actually mean a "no" or "maybe" or "ask me one more time please"?

that's because in programming, something either true or false. an "=" is always an "=" and never a "==".

afterwards i learned that things in the world are more relative: i think it is good but he thinks it can be better. i think something is short and somebody thinks it is long. even in CSS, an absolutely positioned element is relative to the containing element and therefore it is absolute but relative to something. just like if i think something is good, it is good only relative to me, not relative to someone else.

Answer 529

Sometimes when I go for a walk after a few days of programming, I find myself marvelling at the incredibly high texture resolution of everything around me.

Answer 530

I obsessively analyze the effeciency of everyday tasks. Preparing a bag of popcorn in the microwave is a good example. I would put it in for 1:20 seconds but it was coming out a little burnt, so I started using 1:11 because it was a little less time and very easy to enter. I was happy with 1:11 seconds for awhile and then I realized that 1:11 = 71 and I am now trying to decide whether it's easier to enter 1:11 or 71 on the touch pad.

Sometimes I try to do virtual things in the real world. Just a couple of days ago I scratched my eye and in the process, accidentally smuged my glasses with my finger. I actually thought briefly about hitting the "undo" button on my keyboard to remove the smudge (and restore the itch too I guess).

Answer 531

In the building I work there are 6 elevators.

I'm always trying to figure out how to improve the algorithm that handle them (send this one to the 4th floor because at 10pm there's a 75% chance that someone will come up according to previous data)

Answer 532

I start analysing human behavior as Brain = Processor, and I tell out my plans

if(some thing happens) do it
else 
do other

Ctrl + F a book

Answer 533

What real life bad habits has programming given to customers?

2min 19 sec youtube video

Answer 534

I wish that I could CTRL+Z everything. [maybe this is more IT related]

Answer 535

Mathematicians: log is not an operator. 3 log 2 is a parse error. Unless you're going to assign a precedence to "log", then it's a function: 3 * log ( 2 )...

It's when you look at:

∫ 2 ^ 3 * 2 log x + 2 * 4 log 8 * 3

...X_X

() ! ^ log *,/ integral +,- ... maybe?

Answer 536

When I sort cards (e.g. the letter cards for my 4yr old) I use a kind of quicksort - scan through the pack, placing each card into two piles (A-M then N-Z), then recurse to the two piles. I'd like to spawn copies of myself to parallelize the operation, but I'm finding that the copies are not identical to the original...

Answer 537

When I watch tv always try to press F6 to change channels.

Answer 538

In every circumstance where there're several possibilities I tend to expose all of them nesting sentences containing if/then/else, and sometimes that sounds quite redundant.

Answer 539

I would really like a house that just needs Ctrl-Shift-B and be built.

Answer 540

Dont know if this has been added yet but oh well:

I just hate it when people don't close their round brackets in emails..

For example: I was walking down the street and saw something at the store (you know the one owned by Mr X (who got divorced recently), and I was greeted by....

AARGH close those brackets!!

Answer 541

I'm always pressing Ctrl+X to delete a whole line in any document except it only works in Visual Studio.

Answer 542

Sadly, I can't play any computergames any longer without thinking about how some things are realised in code. You can't enjoy a game the same way if you're always trying to figure out how they've done it.

On the other side, it does add some "Wow, that's well done" thoughts to every gaming-experience and you can learn something. But who wants a learning effect during a match of halo?

Answer 543

I am trying to find all the paths on nested if's in real life, i just can't accept "do this and that", I am always asking "what if i do that and this?"

Answer 544

I often try to get rid of change by paying e.g. 12.45 on a 7.45 bill. I'm surprised how many just look at the money, hand the 2.45 back, and then count out the rest.

Answer 545

Someone asked me if I finished with a scrap of paper - I responded, "Yeah, you can go ahead and delete it."

Answer 546

In real life I'm not able to find the debugger, not even the unitary test library :-(

My wife: yes ="no" no ="yes" maybe = sometimes "yes" some others "no"

How can I implement this kind of logic???

Answer 547

I've definitely set down a sheet of paper next to my computer and started typing, wondering why it wasn't showing up on the sheet.

Answer 548

First of all THIS POST RULES, as for the question I must say that I think programming affects thinking a lot, and we also spend very much time with computers and internet. Somehow I also think every discipline that you learn until you master it, does a little change in 'who you are and how you act', learning to sing, learning to drive, learning programming and so on, all this changes the way you are.

So there are bad habits and good ones, the bad would be: standing in front of the computer all day long, making your eyes hurt, forgetting about doing things like cleaning the house, and ignoring external life and maybe your kids, girlfriend, family and so on.

I sometimes ask myself if we are on the "good way" building our world based on new and new technology and science, do we have to keep improving until we get space ships like Star Trek? and live a fast life? or should we go slower and live normal lives in villages, with animals and nature? I am thinking about giving up computers and going more spiritual :)

The last thing to add is that programming can also give good habits, like I said before every discipline you learn does a change in you so if you learn to order your programming code to be well structured and commented, you will also be more carefull with things in real life.

PS: When I wash the dishes I insist very much to leave them clean, it takes me 3 times more time than if my girlfriend would do it. I think that's because I associate the dirt on the dishes with possible errors(bugs) in programming, I don't know if this one is bad or good :)

Answer 549

None, actually.

Answer 550

I hate doing repetitive task, I always search a reusable solution. For example if I receive 50 mails with attachments I will write a program to retrieve it instead doing 50 times the same thing. Even if doing the program takes twice longer.

Answer 551

Whenever my wife says

finally

I start wondering: what did I

try

and where's the

catch

?

Answer 552

Because of my software job, I learned a few things about real life:

Lesson 1: Real life has a VERY HIGH dpi resolution:

"What is the resolution of my retina?", I often wonder.

Lesson 2: Real life needs to be much more modular:

"I have to DRILL A HOLE?" - What about the Adapter or Facade pattern?

Lesson 3: In real life, I still hate marketing/sales departments.

"You've called me twice today about my car warranty. Stop it. Forever." - As if they had no concurrency handling at all?!?

Lesson 4: Real life is not unit-testable:

"The laundry machine stopped working again." - Forget it: reactive support is good 'nuff.

Answer 553

I tend to find the potential bugs everywhere... This infuriated my girlfriend at the time but I can`t help it... it just jumps at me where this or that could fail.

Knowing that though we can prepare better or live with the risk (however infinitesimal it can be) but I rarely get past the enumeration of single points of failures...

sight !

Answer 554

I forget small things almost instantly. Hey, I know the big picture, I don't need to remember the details. And whenever I do need to know the details, they're either auto-completed or just a Ctrl+Spacebar <abbr> <query> away (God, I love LaunchBar).

Doesn't go down too well with the wife sometimes though. "Sorry, forgot to buy X, forgot to close the windows, forgot there's laundry in the machine, forgot where exactly we're going today, ...".

Even this answer was supposed to be something else, but I forgot what I wanted to write while I was scrolling down to the reply box, reading the rest of the comments.

Answer 555

• One of my favourite jokes is "There are 10 kinds of people, those who know binary numbers and those who don't"
• I try to round everything to powers of 2
• I try to optimize every path I make. Even 2 meters are important to me.
• When I'm asked a question that can be answered with a yes/no, I usually answer "It depends". No one considers the edge cases these days...
• I want every text to be an hypertext.
• I often use english terms while speaking even if I'm Italian.
• I put() parentheses after every verb I write()

Answer 556

I tend to try CTRL-Z when I do any mistake outside the computer. Besides that, I overuse the "default" word, like in "this is my default hairstyle" (and I'm not a native english speaker)

Answer 557

I knew I needed a vacation from IBM once when two things happened close to each other:

• I tried to badge into my car.

• I had a piece of paper propped up in front of my monitor and out of instinct I tried to click a window to bring it in front.

Bad habits?

• I use the word "instance" in conversation about real world objects.

• I get confused when reading restaurant menus which use which use "and" and "or" in non mathematical ways (that comes with potato or french fries and carrots).

• I almost drove a real estate lawyer nuts once when every time he brought up some contingency possibility I would ask what would be the result of that happening. He thought I was a worrier, but programming is all about risk management/acceptance.

Answer 558

How about calling Comcast to report a bug in their DVR. The operator tried to correct me and say that it just didn't behave the way I preferred it to. I said no, it's a bug. It makes sense that when you're watching something live and two recordings are scheduled at once so the DVR changes to one of the shows being recorded because the DVR only has 2 tuners, but it should NEVER suddenly switch to one of those records if you were watching a previously recorded show at the time.

We programmers KNOW when something is a real bug and when it's just a preference!

Answer 559

I'm always trying to refactor things so as to reduce duplication.

For instance while reading through the answers I noticed the following:

• I wish I could grep my keys
• I wish I could Ctrl-F my book
• I wish I could Ctrl-Z the world
• I wish I could use regular expressions on physical objects

My first thought after seeing the same pattern repeated was that it could be replaced with a single line:

Console.WriteLine("I wish I could {0} {1}", tool, item);

That would give us the following outputs:

• I wish I could grep keys
• I wish I could Ctrl-F books
• I wish I could Ctrl-Z the world
• I wish I could RegEx physical objects

Nice and DRY!

*sigh* Why am I thus???

Answer 560

Sometimes I try to move my mouse pointer off screen to access the properties of physical objects. Most recently I've tried to right click on my webcam in order to correct an issue I was having with it at the time. There are also many instances of when I've tried to use my mouse to point out things in the room to people next to me....

Answer 561

When I'm driving and see a road sign which reads:

CAUTION: CONST. AHEAD

and I think why are there Constants ahead?

ugg

Answer 562

Here's a situation I cannot stand:

Stopped at a traffic light, with a long line of cars ahead of me. The light turns green... why can't everyone start moving slowly and gain speed!? Everyone takes turns stepping on the gas, and you miss the traffic light because no one understands how to increase throughput/flow at the light.

... very frustrating.

Answer 563

Two weeks ago, a friend and I went to eat at a Chinese restaurant. The waiter came and gave me a pen and a piece of paper to write our orders on.

Me : I'll have "Chicken with mushroom". How about you ?

Friend : Uh.. let's see... Fried rice.

Me : Okay.

(writes on paper)

   chicken with mushroom  1
   fried rice  1

Friend : Wait, wait.. scratch that. I'll have "Beef with Oyster sauce" instead.

Me : oh, okay.

(writes on paper)

   chicken with mushroom  1
// fried rice  1
   beef with oyster sauce  1

Me : done. (review orders)

Friend : .. What are you doing ?

Me : what ? (gives paper to waiter)

Answer 564

Since I mainly communicate via email and instant messenger, I keep wishing it was socially acceptable to take extra time to think about what I want to say during verbal communication.

Answer 565

• Attempting to click things that are not on my monitor
• Trying to Ctrl - F in hard copies of books, essays, or even just trying to find things in my room or house.
• Mentally using shortcuts when doing something manually, or calling a symbol by it's ALT-code in IM.

Answer 566

I always think complete "enlightenment" is just around the corner and i can somehow transcend the concepts a language (think box) has, being able to fit the whole universe into it. This would make me feel really good. Turns out you are always just playing around within some fixed sandbox borders, someone made up... and all is relative and no concept is ever perfect after all... the whole expressiveness, unique creativity human mind has is not matched with concepts... like it too though to be like that..., staying confused in a good way, no bad habits after all, just ever more curious :-)

Answer 567

I have a terrible habit of thinking of every "search related" problem I have in terms of SQL. Sometimes I'll just wonder, "How many insects do you think are in this house?" And come up with:

SELECT insect FROM house WHERE house_id = 123

It's horrible.

Answer 568

I always think of the inputs and outputs of situations and decisions.

Break down real life issues and decisions into easier more manageable problems and address them piece by piece with the whole main issue still in mind...

Answer 569

"Where's your keys, mate?" "First column." "Huh?"

Answer 570

Sometimes I call XM radio XML :/

Answer 571

Talking with my son about words and letters, I treat whitespaces as letters.

Answer 572

I get so stunned when people insists that I'm using rhetorics, it is like if my brain works on a typefied language.

Me: "Are you going to eat that?"

"Why?"

Me: "Wait, what?"

Answer 573

I sometimes wish for a physical copy/paste. Like if somebody tells me a phone number, I should be able to paste it onto the notepad in front of me.

Answer 574

While in school I took all of my notes via laptop. Of course I did nearly all of my work on a computer of some sort as well. I virtually never used pen and paper and was frequently caught off guard and without pen or paper when the occasional professor required us to procure such things for whatever reason.

In any event, I used the computer nearly exclusively. I also compulsively save my work whenever I've accomplished anything of significance (very frequent CTRL + S). While taking tests and doing other things that manage the use of pen and paper I find myself trying to save my work whenever I arrive at a good answer or stopping point...

Answer 575

I put a slash through all my zeros (0) to keep them from being confused with the letter that comes after N (O).

---

On a more humorous note, I put $1.29 in my pocket and thought, "I have two bits" (10000001).

Answer 576

When I want to see a girl in group. I look for ctlr + (zoom) keys :(

Answer 577

• I get frustrated that I can't do a backup copy of a physical project (like cutting a piece of wood).
• I tend to apply sorting algorithms on real objects and choose the one that has the best complexity

Answer 578

I get really annoyed when Word fails to code-complete what I'm typing...

Answer 579

I see powers of 2 everywhere (or 2^n-1), up to 2^20.In fact, it amuses me to see 'close calls', like 1025 or 511 and the like. :-)

Answer 580

Not about me but:

A novice programmer thinks than kilobyte is equal to 1000 bytes and geek thinks that kilometer is equal to 1024 meters...

Answer 581

I tend to think you can UNDO and COPY/PASTE in situation that entirely make no sense. For example, if I'm writing out a manual check and mess up, for a brief moment, I think "UNDO"

It's sad...

Answer 582

When I converse with people, I tend to scorn at their ignorance not to pass all the details necessary for a good and healthy conversation. I always have to ask questions and get their details. I hate this and I hate Setter dependency injection!

Answer 583

I am looking a kind of for loop in which I can place my work(job) and relax at home where the loop doing its work.

Answer 584

Any time I have to sit down and look through paper pages of information, it feels unfair that I can't write a script to parse it.

Answer 585

• Counting the number of primitives in real-world objects
• When I'm crossing the street and a car brakes, I try to figure out momentum to Euler rotation
• Somehow the kettle boiling is linked to a callback in my head. From anywhere in the house I will go and pick it up just as the thermostat clicks

Random O_o

Answer 586

I feel you on the inheritance thing... LOL.

I do that all the time.

Answer 587

return null;

Oh...

Answer 588

I often want to click on any underlined word on paper. (Index of book, references.)

Answer 589

I always have to get my afternoon coffee at exactly 2:56 pm.

Answer 590

Double-clicking elevator buttons.

Answer 591

I recently moved to another place and some stuff still is in packing cases. I'm really missing the find - name "*.packingcase" | grep -in stuff_im_looking_for feature in real life.

Answer 592

When I enter a pub I wish I can query and only select the women that have big breast and set order by size.

Answer 593

Because, as programmer, I am constantly confronted with my own errors (bugs), I tend to put every choice I make in question. In a way, it is a lack of confidence.

Answer 594

For me, as I live in Blighty, American spellings are a problem.

• Correct in English: centre | Correct in programming: center
• Correct in English: colour | Correct in programming: color
• Correct in English: serialise | Correct in programming: serialize
• and so on

Also, when typing normally I tend to enter the first three characters and then hit tab.

Answer 595

When my younger brother was about 7 years old and I fetched him from school and we saw a beautiful scenery of the mountains after a heavy rainfall (the sky was clear and there was no smog).

My young brother said: "Oh look! Very nice graphics! (While he was pointing at the mountains)"