In my 35+ years of programming computers of all kinds, using many different computer languages, and developing many different kinds of applications, I have noticed a recurring phenomenon that, I believe, is a universal principle of the human psyche, which is to say, of reality.
When I’ve finished the code for a particular feature in a program, I always run the program to test it and make sure it works like it should. But something is wrong. Some error occurs. So I go back and pore over the code until I discover the error in logic that is obviously causing the problem. Then I run it again, and, lo and behold, the exact same error occurs. How can this be? I know for a certainty that the thing I fixed would cause this error, and I have fixed it, and the error continues to happen. Same error, different source of error. So I perform the same process over again. This happens so frequently, I have come to expect it. There is almost always another, completely unrelated, glitch in the logic of the program, that causes the exact same error. Often there will even be one or two more such completely unrelated bugs, all causing the same result.
This same circumstance arises in our lives. We have some recurring problem that keeps coming up. So, we get therapy or read a self-help book, or just engage in self examination, and Eureka! We discover what it is we are doing that is making this happen over and over. We change, we fix it, and we feel better. And it doesn’t make any difference. The problem, whatever it is, doesn’t go away. It continues to plague us. When this happens, it means there is some other, completely unrelated, twist in our soul that must also be untangled.
The universe is constructed of bits that can be either zero or one. At least that’s what Marvin Minsky believes. But it is an idea as old as the hills, that runs through all science and religion. Positive and negative, good and evil, male and female, yin and yang. The universe is composed of a duality of opposites, no matter what you call them. This means that the process of programming a computer, which is ultimately a manipulation of bits of information that can be either 1 or 0, is a mini version of the process of Creation itself. That’s why geeks find it so addictive. There is a God-like feeling to it.
Unfortunately, the lessons learned from programming computers don’t seem to make computer programmers any better at solving their own problems than anyone else. This is either because they don’t apply their skills to other aspects of their life, or because they do, but that only fixes one cause. There is something else being overlooked.