What's a bad habit in a non-programming context, can be a good thing to a programmer. (eg, the three virtues)

Personally, I'm obsessive compulsive, and a packrat. I'm not really certain that either one is all that useful to this profession though:

Obsessive compulsive:

Nothing ever seems good enough--I always want to improve things. Of course, this means that I hate declaring something to be a final release. I'd leave things in beta longer than Google, if I could get away with it.

Packrat:

Yes, there's the odd humor when people come to me looking for odd things (a DB25 to RJ45 adaptor, packing peanuts, WD40, random tools, VHB, etc.), and I actually have them, and it can be useful to keep every e-mail, so that you can justify the changes to the system, but I have way too much crap on/in/under my desk at work, and I use more than half my house for storage.

Oh -- and I hate making phone calls. It might have something to with having doing tech support during my undergrad, but I don't even like checking voicemail or calling for pizza.

Update: I said that I was obsessive compulsive. I never claimed to have OCD or OCPD. I do, however, exhibit every one of the typical indicators of an obsessive compulsive personality (some of them I'm slowly overcoming):

++, yep, uncomfortably close description of several of my characteristics.

I'd add

• wanting to use time as efficiently as possible such that I'm nearly always 2-5 minutes late to meetings, yet can waste entire weeks doing nothing of importance


• I hate making my own appointments for anything, but otherwise, phone calls aren't a problem for me.


• I've noticed that the details are generally unimportant to me unless I need that knowledge for something in the IMMEDIATE future. ie within half an hour. Otherwise, I just think, "eh, I can always look up the details". This infuriates my wife, who insists that I just ignore everything she tells me. She's not too far off the mark there...


• My eyes are drawn, irrevocably, to movement, my brain to general understanding. Turn on a TV near me, and you can forget about me getting anything else done. My wife uses the TV as background "noise", I can't funtion while it's on...
-Scott

I got an solution for your 'beeing late' problem. I simply shifted my clock(s) 5 minutes "into the future" :)

If you need more time then shift it more :)

Of course, since I know that I did that. It's not as good as if somebody else did it without my knowledge, but in all that rush not to be late - I dont think about it.

Obsessive compulsive:

Nothing ever seems good enough--I always want to improve things. Of course, this means that I hate declaring something to be a final release. I'd leave things in beta longer than Google, if I could get away with it.

Wow, that sounds absolutely nothing like OCD.

It's a shame that so many people trivialize OCD by equating it with innocuous personality traits like perfectionism or tidyness. OCD is a terrible condition to have -- characterized by uncontrollable, irrational, and paralyzing anxiety.

Using OCD to label what you've described is like telling people that I have Alzheimer's because I keep forgetting the syntax for pack and need to use perldoc every time.

</rant>

Well, a person can meet some but not all of the diagnostic criteria of any illness - to the aforementioned point, these disorders are usually diagnosed when the disorder significantly disrupts the patients life - jobs, friends, other social functioning, etc. Of course, if the symptoms of any condition were to advance a person's life, it could never really be considered an illness.

I don't think that anyone was trying to trivialize any illness, and its apt to note that OCD quite probably is related to the quasi-obsessions of which the original poster speaks, although on a massive, overgrown, and uncontrollable scale. Also, you are quite right, imo, to mention that OCD is quite terrible as, in most cases, it very dramatically prevents the sufferer from living a normal life, and can be quite sad to witness. Fortunately, psychologists are now making advances in cognitive therapies to augment the more traditional behavioral methods that have shown success, and psychopharm researchers have shown treatment efficacy using the relatively safe SSRI class of antidepressants.

  -Adam

--
Impossible! The Remonster can only be killed by stabbing him in the heart with the ancient bone saber of Zumakalis!

I hear you. Mine is excessive nose-picking (I've been fined multiple times). Workaround: I wear boxing gloves. (I type with my nose, ironically enough).

• Phone calls. Mostly because my boss doesn't like to deliver or hear bad news, so whenever she has to give or receive it, she makes me make the phone call. I sometimes have small anxiety attacks when the phone rings and larger ones if the bad news thing is involved.
• Apologizing for things that my boss did, to the boss that did them. Boss chooses to install shareware, shareware screws up computer, I apologize because I should have magically known she was going to do and and stopped her. If I don't apologize I get rancid glares.
• I also apologize for the actions of my co-workers. If they do something wrong, then it's my fault because I guess while trying to pull seven hours of billable I'm supposed to hover over them and make sure they follow the procedure manual to the letter.
• Getting pissy when I'm told to concentrate on a project and am then interrupted 25 times an hour to have my brain picked or get chatted up.
• Rationalizing bad sci-fi. I can't help it, if there's a plot hole I have to try to plug it in my head or I can't enjoy the movie.
• Playing AGS games when I should be re-programming my website.
• Falling asleep while watching television.
• Reading in the tub for about two hours every night.
• Doing for my boss what she should be doing herself.
• Not noticing that people have "accidentally" left most of their paperwork on my desk... that is until they announce that they're desk is clean and mine is loaded with paperwork.
• Losing my cup of coffee, my pen, my pad of paper, my mind, etc.
• Allowing my boss to use my credit rating for business loans. Let's just hope she makes the payments.
• Telling my boss that we can't fault my co-worker because her husband is an asshole.
• Telling people "I have to pull seven hours of billable in the same time that you have to pull your measley four hours, so would you like some cheese with your whine?". I don't intend to break this habit since it shuts them up.
• Telling people that marriage is an excercise in masochism and that having children is an 18-year-long prison sentence, followed by a second-mortgage with a high interest rate, and then a bad nursing home. It upsets the unmarried and childless.
• Automatically filling out my self-evaluations as terrible across the board.
• Hoping for a response when I email the long-distance boyfriend. It's emotionally taxing. I should stop caring.
• Sleeping pills. I'd really like to stop, but if I don't take them, I'll go months without sleeping.
• Caffiene tablets for all-nighters. Although I can't sleep without a pill, I do tend to get droopy at night so when pulling an all-nighter I overload on caffeine. This causes kidney stones and then I have to take time-off from work and money on prescriptions to pass them.
• Banging my head on my desk. Mostly happens when someone tries to do my job for me and ultimately makes more work for me (like the co-worker who did all the filing when I was out sick with stones.) It looked like she randomly threw the paperwork in random files for the wrong companies. It took me two months of working weekends to straighten out the mess.
• Doing all the housework. My roommate is supposed to do half, but she frequently says that she's "too tired" and unless I want the place to reek, I do it.
• Hoarding emails. Both at work and home. I just can't seem to delete them. Probably because at work, I'm told that "you never told me that" and I have - in email.
• Converting forms that my boss made in Excel to Word where appropriate. She uses Excel every time she has to use a table. Turns out only one or two of the twenty-five or so forms she made actually are easier to fill out and are more maintainable in Excel.
• Loaning people money.
• Having friends. See last item for explanation.
• Wearing four-inch heels. My knees hurt...but I'm taller
• Buying skirts and shorts but never wearing them - no thanks to Hollywood.
• Buying evening wear and never wearing it because I don't go out.
• Offering to do things for people and then letting them take advantage.
• Crest White Strips. My teeth hurt... but they're brighter.
• Absentmindedly scratching my arms and legs even though they don't itch. I do this at night while sleeping and at day while thinking.
• Lightly tapping any idle fingers on the keyboard while typing. My doctor says it isn't helping the carpal tunnel.
• Taking in abused and neglected ferrets. I have to stop because pretty soon, I won't have the capacity to properly care and house more.
• Mentioning passing interests to my mother ("Since I can't find clothes in my size, maybe I should look into making them" Next thing I know, I'm being given a sewing machine.)
• Greeting people who walk into the office. I'm 20 feet away from the door and I have to maneuver around obstacles to get to the counter. But if I get up and meet them at the counter, they feel like it's their duty to walk behind the counter in order to state their business. Did I mention that we have a person who's the official greeter and whose job it is to get her fat butt out of her chair and approach them so they don't come behind the counter - but she instead keeps her fat butt in the chair and just says "'Allo!".
• Not sitting up straight. This has actually caused bursitis in my right shoulder when filing for extended periods of time (say 2 or 3 hours straight).
• Buying cheap underclothes in one or two sizes too large because I'm shopping locally. This is mostly because only the expensive mailorder sites have the stuff that fits right. Buying the wrong size leads to numerous wedgies and more back problems.
• Buying calenders, etc. from Despair.com. I can't help it they're too damned funny (and true...).
• Allowing people to rush me when working. This often leads to mistakes and there really isn't a need to rush me. I can go through the same amount of work as my co-works in half the time and end up with less mistakes. They and my boss can attest to this.
• Allowing myself to get distracted by co-workers' muttering to themselves.
• Listening in on this end of the co-worker's business calls to ensure that they're actually making the calls. This started happening at my boss's request a few years back and a couple of months ago we stopped needing to have it done due to other measures that were taken. Now that I've started, I can't seem to stop.
• Making excuses for my boss's odd behavior and arbitrary decisions.
• Allowing my co-workers to assume that I remember everything they said just because I can sometimes recall entire coversations word for word.
• Not ensuring that when I tell co-workers to talk to the boss about something because I don't have the authority help them with it, they they actually talk to the boss about it.

We all have our bad habits... You can try to get rid of them, or you can try to change them slightly into more enjoyable form... Like this:

- Getting pissy when someone breaking your concentration: Make a poster-sized sign "I'm working. Distracting me costs the company and yourself. Come back later". Trust me, it works, most of the time

- Reading in the tub: put some epsom salts and essential oils (lavender, rose, rosemarine). Make the time useful for the body as well...

- Doing your boss's work/apologizing for things: make sure your duties and working hours are clearly stated in written form, print them out and put on cubicle/office/whatever wall for everyone to see; refer to it every time you're forced to do something else. If you're on contract, it works immediately; if you're not, it will take time (if it doesn't, you shouldn't be working here, unless you love this particular job at this particular company...)

- Filling self-eval as terrible: don't be shy - it doesn't make your life easier and can be seen as lack of self-confidence. Say you're perfect and let *tem* prove it different...

- Wearing high heels: unless you're four feet high, it doesn't make a difference. Trust me: people on the street won't remember you after a minute; as for the others, you shouldn't care as your height is not one of the qualities they should care about...

- Your view on marriage and children: let's check on that again in a few years <grin>

In general, don't try to keep the world running all by yourself - this is never appreciated (my own bad experience)... Let people do their mistakes, just make sure it doesn't affect you when they get burned.

 

P.S. Sorry about intruding if you didn't really need an advice... couldn't stop myself from trying to help, that's one of my bad habits :)

--------------------------------
An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it...

Those are excellent suggestions, but I don't think it'll work in my given situation.

• Putting a poster on my wall. Nearest wall is 6 feet away - this is an open office. I tried putting a note on the back of my monitor, emailing everyone to let them know I'd be unavailable, snapping at them when they don't pay attention to either, etc. People shout across the room. "Sarah! I need you to look at something!" "Sarah! I see a doggy!" "Sarah! What's that!" I point out to them that I was concentrating and they shout "Sorry". Lather rinse repeat every 10 minutes or so. Then I get repremanded by the boss for being unavailable for questions.
• Epsom salt really doesn't do much for the aches and pains so much as the hot water. Bath additives make me break out in hives, so I really can't use them. Actually, anything but ivory soap in the tub usually causes a problem.
• Contract? HA! I think my job requirements are as follows: Show up for work when I tell you and do what I tell you, or you'll be homeless again. If I don't cover for people the shit rolls back on me. I cc my boss any memos or emails of problems that I inform the co-workers about, and she promises to deal with it, but never does. We actually have one ex-employee who is collecting unemployment because although she was told on numerous occassions that she was doing things wrong or against procedure she was never reprimanded and told that she could be fired and therefore is eligible for unemployment.
• I fill it out as terrible because it's a waste of time at this job. Any other job, I'd be more honest. So I check off all the little "poor" boxes, and don't bother filiing out the two-page essay. I have better things to be doing... like babysitting my co-workers.
• High heels...Actually, it really does help. I'm 5'4" with the heels. My clients average about 6'2". I'm tired of being called "little" and "tiny" by these guys. My psychiatrist also recommended them because they force me to adopt a shorter stride and thereby force me to slow down a bit. I have bad knees to begin with and they'll both need to be replaced within the next ten years or so, so I really don't care what it's doing to my knees. The pain is manageable since its minor compared to the pinching in my back and the pain from the carpal tunnel.
• Marriage and kids? I'd rather just survive the life I have already. The boyfriend is a convenient excuse not to date. There really isn't any form of relationship there. Hell, I don't even think we qualify as friends. Besides, I'm not all that thrilled with ending up a single welfare mother living in a shelter.

Unfortunately, when the people around me make mistakes, I'm the one who ends up fixing them and dealing with the aftermath. It's not about appreciation. When I had a small breakdown last year and wasn't able to deal with anything - much less come into work, we lost three big clients and the business almost shut down. I ended up getting a $25,000 personal loan and giving it to the company to try to save it. I can't find another job so if the company shuts down, I'm back to sleeping under bridges.

What it comes down to is a couple of things: force my co-workers to start being more accountable for themselves without any help from my boss (since she doesn't give it anyway), continue to look for another job without success, or go back to where I was 10 years ago. I've been at option number two for about three years now.

- Getting pissy when someone breaking your concentration: Make a poster-sized sign "I'm working. Distracting me costs the company and yourself. Come back later". Trust me, it works, most of the time

Last place I worked I was sharing an office with a colleague who'd been there for ages. He was gone from the office half the time (part of the job) and people would wander in and ask me "Is x in? Will he be back?" To which I'd invariably reply "Yes and yes" and they'd wander off again. This annoyed me to the point that I put up a sign on his monitor facing the door which said "x is in and will be back shortly." Of course then I got the people who'd wander in and go "So x is in, is he?"...Gaaah!

On a more constructive note, I find a good way to keep your concentration and also stop people from disturbing you is to turn on your mp3-player and put on the headphones. This sends the message that you're concentrating and don't want to be disturbed unless necessary and also drowns out unwanted background noise. It is sometimes a good idea to explain your motivation for this to your boss beforehand though ;-)

• Stealing candy from little children (well, that's not really bad, it's better for their teeth).
• Helping old ladies crossing a busy street, abandoning them halfway.
• Giving bad advice on Perlmonks.
• Illegally copying and distributing Microsoft software, and modified GNU software in binary only format.
• Burning live ants with a magnifying glass.
• Defacing web sites.
• Collecting email addresses, selling them to spammers.
• Borrowing cars from people I don't know.
• Installing hidden cameras in dressing rooms.
• Telling mothers their babies are the ugliests creatures I've ever seen.
• Snooping wireless networks for passwords, credit cards and porn.
• Letting my modem dial random numbers during the night.
• Voting republican.
• Making lewd comments to women.
• Asking strangers why the missed the last weekly dark room session - was it because of a disease? (In a loud voice so others can hear it).
• Call the cops, say that my neighbours speak Arabic, take flying lessons and carry maps of the White house.
• Pick flowers from gardens.
• Putting fireworks in the mailbox.
• Smoke in restaurants. Complain the menu has a lot of meat dishes - farm animals are not well cared for. Insult other patrons for eating meat. Order a steak anyway, because humans are nearly as smart as cows.
• Parking in handicap areas.
• Cutting in lines.
• Farting and burping in movie theaters. Scedule to be called during the movie - and then answering the phone in a loud voice.
• Gossiping.
• Cheating on my tax forms.
• Ordering pizza with weird toppings. Send it to someone elses address.
• Paying with a $10 bill. When getting chance, claiming I paid with a twenty.
• Fishing and hunting without a license.
• Dialling 911 from unguarded phones (in shops, restaurants, or the cell phones co-workers leave on their desk when stepping away) reporting fires, accidents or crime.

I hope you have one more bad habit that you didn't mentioned - too much irony. Because if you don't, you're in serious trouble, and need proper help :)

The weird thing is that I wrote initial post of this thread at about 3 AM (my time zone). And was looking through the monastery during all that evening (until 4 AM) - instead of learning/reviewing for the exam that was the day after (or at least sleeping so that I could do it in the morning). Well actually that same day since it already started.

Call it intuition, or whatever, but the exam was canceled. And I passed it today. Grade - 10 - that's like A ;)

- Too much soda: remember, the gas bubbles in pop (that's how it's called in America) drinks irritate the walls of your stomach, thereby making you feel hungry, which in turn makes you eat more often and in the end gain weight. Getting obsessed with your weight will create the motivation not to drink that stuff... Switch to juices, they're good and healthy <grin>

- Late snacks: very hard to get rid of... the fruits don't help after a while - you eat them and still feel hungry. I use nutrition bars - they have carbs I want, they taste good (well, the ones I buy do) and they are better for health than regular junk food...

- Exercise: again, weight obsession helps... you can also make a little set of exercises for about 10-15min and do it in the morning, before you do your daily stuff... after a while you notice that your body feels better when you do it than when you skip the exercises (and it really does). You can ask your significant other to help boost your motivations - women are *very* creative about that...

- Avoidance: well, that one I cannot get rid of so far... it helps to structure the time and know exactly how long it would take me to do this or that, but generally, you need to develop willpower and make/convince yourself to do things that should be done.

- Motivation: similar treatment as with avoidance, with one addition: since you can change your life to your liking, change it so that most things you have to do are interesting to do, thereby you'll have motivation to do them...

Disclaimer: Those are just general guidelines and cannot be used as instructions since they do not always work even in my case ;)

I wouldn't say that I'm unhappy. More like not so happy. While by calculation (height in cm - 100 ~= perfect weight in kg for a man) I should loose something like 5 - 10 Kg (185 cm - 100 =~ 85 Kg). Somehow nobody doesn't have a feeling that I need to loose that much.

Most annoying thing to me, is the belly of course - the hardest to get rid off<./p>

So I'm counting that driving a bike will help with loosing weight and legs exercise. Wile exercises like push-ups, fallthrough (that's literal translation to English, don't know right name) and similar will give back some muscle "tonus".

I'll check the URLs that you suggested of course

Alright...this is a pet peeve of mine. Body mass index is a poor measure of optimal weight. It assumes way too much about average body composition...for some notion of average. According to this site, I'm in the 91st percentile, labeling me as obese. Let me tell you a little about myself. I'm 5'8", 210 lbs. However, I'm a bodybuilder. That means that I'm a lot more dense than "average".

I also think that Atkins' is a load of shit. In preparation for a contest, I lost 60 lbs by cycling carbs. Had I cut them out completely, my weight loss would have plateaued. Plus, I wasn't eating pounds of bacon at a time. The most effective weight loss tool for the "average" person is cutting your calories by 100-200 per day and exercising a little more. You'd be surprised how easy it is!</rant>

thor

Feel the white light, the light within
Be your own disciple, fan the sparks of will
For all of us waiting, your kingdom will come

I repaired my bicycle and drove it a little bit. Seems that I'm in better shape than I thought. After first few days I drove to 'Ada Ciganlija' lake and back to my home. Total of ~ 40 - 45 Km for that day. And bike-computer showed 500 - 600 Calories spent.

Since I was on vacation after that (which could have been better if it wasn't raining for few days) and now it's raining here - I couldn't repeat it afterwards. But plan is to repeat that drive 2 - 3 times a week, while other days would be abs, push-ups, some weights ...etc.