OCD - is it made worse by IT work?

[TimberWolf]

Some would say most people have a bit of OCD but I wonder if there is more OCD in the IT community.

Personally, mine is getting worse as I get older, as OCD does I'm afraid. I am constantly counting stuff. Number plates are a nightmare for me when I'm driving. I find it hard to read text on the screen without adding up the letters according to my scoring system (when I hit a certain number I start square rooting!!). Very distracting. I don't know if I've been drawn to computers because of this obsessiveness or if I've become like this due to spending huge amounts of time programming over the last 25 years.

I have observed more people in IT have similar, than I've come across outside IT.

What square rooting algorithm do you use?

[Mich the Tester]

What square rooting algorithm do you use?

You really do have OCD if you need an algorithm for rooting.

[Spacecadet]

You really do have OCD if you need an algorithm for rooting.

while(!orgasm)
{
   in();
   out();
}

smoke();

[EternalOptimist]

I like to convert number plates into Roman numerals then add them up or make dates out of them, then attach significant historical events to them.

So I start to talk to the missus about the battle of austerlitz and she says, 'where did THAT come from ??'

its hard to explain that its because you are bonkers

[TimberWolf]

You really do have OCD if you need an algorithm for rooting.

Square roots are awkward to find by trial and error in your head, but an easy algorithm exists that quickly converges to the answer. Newton's method.

Basically:

1. guess a square root
2. divide the number to be rooted by the guess
3. find the mean of the latter two (add the latter to the former and divide by two)

So the square root of 200 is, say (15 + 200/15) / 2 = 14

I'm often square rooting things because for example land areas are often given in hectares or square kilometres or some other unit and it's easier to relate to if it's a single unit square.

A similar algorithm exists for cube roots, and volumes.

[nomadd]

while(!orgasm)
{
   in();
   out();
}

smoke();

Your wife called. She said if that !orgasm condition is against her, then your code is simply an infinite loop.

Still, at least the smoking will never kill you.

[Mich the Tester]

Square roots are awkward to find by trial and error in your head, but an easy algorithm exists that quickly converges to the answer. Newton's method.

Basically:

1. guess a square root
2. divide the number to be rooted by the guess
3. find the mean of the latter two (add the latter to the former and divide by two)

So the square root of 200 is, say (15 + 200/15) / 2 = 14

I'm often square rooting things because for example land areas are often given in hectares or square kilometres or some other unit and it's easier to relate to if it's a single unit square.

A similar algorithm exists for cube roots, and volumes.

Spacecadet's method is better.

[Gibbon]

I like to convert number plates into Roman numerals then add them up or make dates out of them, then attach significant historical events to them.

So I start to talk to the missus about the battle of austerlitz and she says, 'where did THAT come from ??'

its hard to explain that its because you are bonkers

I'm the same but with Classical stuff, even worse now I've done a bit of latin and I randomly start explaining to the missus the root of a word she's just used to berate me and tell me I make her irate; so I reply "thats from the deponent verb irascor 'I grow angry' strange that it's a passive verb given that you use it so actively" I then get told some anglo saxon for which I find no latin root..............

[Spacecadet]

Your wife called. She said if that !orgasm condition is against her, then your code is simply an infinite loop.

Still, at least the smoking will never kill you.

If she stopped randomly phoning other people to prove me wrong then I might put some effort in

[Mich the Tester]

If she stopped randomly phoning other people to prove me wrong then I might put some effort in

Would that be Orgasm2.0?