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Do you catastrophize?


Ralphie
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I do.  It sucks.  Bob Newhart had the best advice for it.  Stop it!

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catastrophize

Shit!  I spelled it wrong and had to correct it!  People must think I am an idiot.  Damn it - why do I always do that?

(That reminded me of Michael Bolton's programming error. :D  See that?  A whole movie based on the subject, and one of the top ones of all time too. :) )

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It is a bad part aboot working or life in general.  You always have to look over your shoulder for disaster.  Like Dilbert said, every engineer's goal is to get to retirement withoot causing a major conflagration.  Similar for all occupations, like trucks running under low clearance bridges, etc.  I often think that life in an advanced society shouldn't have so many _++(*& gotchas.  :(  But staying on your toes is good I guess, but it goes against my lazy , or more generously, relaxed nature. :D

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Philander Seabury said:

It is a bad part aboot working or life in general.  You always have to look over your shoulder for disaster.  Like Dilbert said, every engineer's goal is to get to retirement withoot causing a major conflagration.  Similar for all occupations, like trucks running under low clearance bridges, etc.  I often think that life in an advanced society shouldn't have so many _++(*& gotchas.  :(  But staying on your toes is good I guess, but it goes against my lazy , or more generously, relaxed nature. :D

 

 

My standard response in software meetings was to ask "what happens if it doesn't work that way" because far too many programs are written assuming that the expected action will take place.

Error handling routines are important and it takes a special type of thinking to wonder what lurks just around the bend.

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Yes.  Prepare for the worst possible outcome with things in my life, and hope for better outcomes.  Like, we signed for this HELOC yesterday.  I am not sure I will even take the money.  It's my contingency plan if the home build gets obnoxious in price.  My husband called the loan "A loan to keep my wife from worrying."

 

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17 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

My standard response in software meetings was to ask "what happens if it doesn't work that way" because far too many programs are written assuming that the expected action will take place.

Error handling routines are important and it takes a special type of thinking to wonder what lurks just around the bend.

Good point.  Software and systems that are not quite right and very weak at handling anything oot of the ordinary are all too common.  That is why I am so delighted when I come across good software, like this forum!

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Just came across a great example.  On a crowded file explorer screen, sometimes you can't find enough blank space to click to paste files.  Which could cause you to paste inside an existing folder.  I am always paranoid aboot that.  Baaad!

Also, it takes special effort to maintain time stamps when copy/pasting.  A saw a good post marked as answer where they said it was a Microsoft screwup and it is a lot easier and better to "innovate" with things like tiles on Windows 8 than to fix old niggling bugs.  FTR, dragging and dropping supposedly works but that is too flaky for me - too much potential for things to go wrong.  I think command line move also works but that can be cumbersome.  Robocopy or xcopy work too.

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2 hours ago, Philander Seabury said:

Good point.  Software and systems that are not quite right and very weak at handling anything oot of the ordinary are all too common.  That is why I am so delighted when I come across good software, like this forum!

It was easier for me as virtually all of my software involved controlling machinery and mechanical things.  Unlike wonky databases, a machine usually does or doesn't do what it's told to do.  It's much easier to identify what it has done incorrectly and plan for that.  Example:  Jet engines use something called starter air to spin them over prior to starting.  The original program for P$W's test cells called for turning the starter air valve on......finis.  When questioned about what happened if the valve didn't open it was changed to monitor the position of the valve.  After my suggestion, the air pressure in the starter air hose to the engine provided the actual proof that it had responded properly.  Then we put in a backup mechanical starter air system in case the computers failed.  Why?  Because starter air in the test cells is used to keep the engine turning over if for some reason it stalls out due to some failure.  This is to dissipate heat because in the test cell the engine is not moving through the air.  A total failure results in a potentially seized engine requiring a tear down and rebuild.

So I guess that was paranoid backups on backups on backups.

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12 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

My standard response in software meetings was to ask "what happens if it doesn't work that way" because far too many programs are written assuming that the expected action will take place.

Error handling routines are important and it takes a special type of thinking to wonder what lurks just around the bend.

Sometimes I'd write Excel macros for work.  I'd have some error trapping for errors that I could think may happen.  V1 would go live.  People are creative.  And a few days later, I'd get a call about the macro doesn't work.  I'd have the user explain exactly what they did.  I'd be amazed what they did to blow up my macro.  V2 would soon be issued.  

Yeah eliminating unexpected errors (or usage) is a BIG deal.   

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During my work years I tried to "Be Prepared" but I always had confidence I'd get the job done, whether it was finding a way to synthesize a chemical for less than $1.75/lb so the company could grab 1/4 of the market for it or if it was figuring out how to recruit better athletes for the school cross country team and improving our standing after I became a teacher and coach.

Of course, part of being prepared is worrying about what can go wrong, so there's a little catastrophizing going on there.

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