Reproducible
Every once in a while I'll forget that I did something, and I'll do it again, or I'll at least start doing it before I remember that I already did it. When this happens, I sometimes surprise myself by re-doing it exactly the same way I did before.
Example: I wanted to open a savings account for my one-month-old daughter, who got her Social Security number a few days ago. So today I do the following:
- Open Notepad (actually Notepad2, which is a great Notepad replacement).
- Type her name: first name, middle initial, last name.
- New line.
- Type her SSN.
- Print.
- Get the paper from the printer, get in the car, etc.
When I got to step 4, however, I asked myself "Wait, didn't I already print this out two days ago?" So I walk to the printer and sure enough, find a sheet of paper with first name, middle initial, last name, new line, SSN. And I remember that I was about to go get the sheet of paper two days ago when the phone rang and I got distracted.
On one hand, of course, I worry that this forgetfulness is the beginning of early-onset dementia. But on the other hand, as a software engineer I take delight in the reproducibility of my own behavior. It's very geekily comforting to know that if I'm placed in the same situation twice, I'll probably behave the same way twice, right down to the middle initial.
Early-onset dementia? Is this your first kid? Kid's job is to suck up all of your attention. If you are thinking of anything besides them, they're unhappy. I find that resisting kids is great training for concentration, if you can resist them, everything else is easy.