
Obsessive Efficiency Disorder - Mojah
https://ma.ttias.be/obsessive-efficiency-disorder/
======
Aaronneyer
Someone just posted this quote in the comments on the Amazon Dash, and I
thought it fitting for this thread as well.

Harper's Magazine, September 1996:

> From an interview with Kurt Vonnegut in the November 1995 issue of Inc.
> Technology. Vonnegut was asked to discuss his feelings about living in an
> increasingly computerized world.

>> I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my
bed, and I'd never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterward I
mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this woman named Carol out in
Woodstock and say, “Are you still doing typing?” Sure she is, and her husband
is trying to track bluebirds out there and not having much luck, and so we
chitchat back and forth, and I say, “Okay, I'll send you the pages.” Then I go
down the steps and my wife calls, “Where are you going?” “Well,” I say, “I'm
going to buy an envelope.” And she says, “You're not a poor man. Why don't you
buy a thousand envelopes? They'll deliver them, and you can put them in the
closet.” And I say, “Hush.” So I go to this newsstand across the street where
they sell magazines and lottery tickets and stationery. I have to get in line
because there are people buying candy and all that sort of thing, and I talk
to them. The woman behind the counter has a jewel between her eyes, and when
it's my turn, I ask her if there have been any big winners lately. I get my
envelope and seal it up and go to the postal convenience center down the block
at the corner of Forty-seventh Street and Second Avenue, where I'm secretly in
love with the woman behind the counter. I keep absolutely poker-faced; I never
let her know how I feel about her. One time I had my pocket picked in there
and got to meet a cop and tell him about it. Anyway, I address the envelope to
Carol in Woodstock. I stamp the envelope and mail it in a mailbox in front of
the post office, and I go home. And I've had a hell of a good time. I tell
you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any
different.

A bit of a reminder that we don't have to be overly efficient about everything
we do. Instead we can simply stay mindful and just enjoy whatever it is we are
doing, even if it is waiting in line to buy an envelope, or waiting for the
coffee to brew.

~~~
smt88
To build on this, there's a growing body of scientific research that shows
that an idle mind (to the point of boredom) is necessary for creativity.

There's also obviously a lot of evidence that meditating, which can be
considered a form of intentional boredom, is very good for you in a lot of
ways.

~~~
cema
It's good to have a choice.

------
jasonlotito
> It's like OCD, but more efficient.

This implies that OCD is efficient. Like, "Hey guys, don't just be OCD about
things, be OED!" I wonder if he has OCD, or he understands what it's like
living with OCD. Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but it feels like the
diminishes those who suffer from OCD. Basically, it's not anything like OCD,
and implying such shows a complete lack of understanding of OCD, and he is
merely using it as a buzz word.

I half expected a comment like "LOL I'm so autistic in my brilliance
sometimes."

~~~
Delmania
He doesn't understand OCD, but then again, most people who throw that term
around don't. For most people, it comes down to an extreme attention to detail
or commitment to some form of perfection, when others would call it good
enough.

True OCD is much worse. At a young age, my cousin was diagnosed with OCD in
the form of hand washing. He had to wash his hands multiple times per day,
whenever he perceived them as dirty. It was crippling to him, as he had a hard
leaving the house to do basic things like go to school or play with friends.

It's really annoying when people use medical conditions in "clever" ways like
this.

~~~
jasonlotito
Yeah, I was diagnosed with OCD a couple years ago. One of my obsessions is the
number 5. It's hardly efficient. I remember explaining that to the therapist,
and when I mentioned the number 5, their face changed to one of those "I know
exactly what that means." That, and a number of other things I do or obsess
about...

Well, yeah.

> It's really annoying when people use medical conditions in "clever" ways
> like this.

My children have autism, and people seem to throw that term around as well. At
this point, it's simply insulting.

------
rconti
I have desk toys specifically to help me avoid this.

If, like the author, I could return to my task on time, I'd do so.
Unfortunately, I just get distracted. So instead of switching desktops while a
~60 second task runs, I find I'm more efficient if I simply sit there and let
it run while I play with a little desk toy or something. Sure, it feels like
wasted time, but I'm actually more efficient when I don't lose track of what
I'm doing and then find it at 6pm when I'm about to leave for the day.. "oh,
right, THAT'S what I was planning on doing today!"

------
todd8
I've got OED, obsessive Emacs disorder. I can't stop messing with my Emacs
configuration to make it "just right". I waste more time programming in Emacs
Lisp than I would in just using plain, vanilla Emacs.

~~~
616c
Yeah, I here you. In my day job, I do sysadmin work, not programming, and
decided to install org-mode to write docs and notes on my laptop.

I now make a point of not ever opening up the init.el file unless it is
Friday. No way in hell will I go down that sinkhole during a nasty work week.

Now I have returned to procrastinating on HN more exclusively again. Everyone
wins!

------
jtheory
Comparison to a disorder doesn't seem to be going over so well. Well, yeah.

But I look for these little optimizations all over the place; it's
entertaining. Oddly enough, I'm more successful when _off_ the computer. Like,
I can optimize the #$%^ out of unloading the dishwasher, but trying to come up
with a 20-second task while I'm coding doesn't often work out. Besides, if I'm
working and I have a > 1 minute break, it's more beneficial for me to close my
eyes, lean back and just zoom out to make course adjustments.

It's not actually a positive thing for me to fill in every bit of empty space
-- the pauses serve a purpose (though admittedly, our build/deploy/test cycle
currently is too long, and this is harmful).

But if I'm making tea, I know the tap takes a bit over 5 seconds to run a
mug's worth of water, so I can fill the kettle just enough with my right hand,
while the left one chooses what tea I'm going to use from the cabinet
overhead.

------
notacoward
Like many in computing, I also do this. Let's say I want to get a snack, check
snail mail, hit the bathroom, and throw on a sweater. Yes, I will solve that
miniature Traveling Salesman Problem in my head to figure out the most
efficient order, and I'll do it all while my code's compiling. Developers who
_don 't_ have OED drive me nuts.

My wife has a related problem - Obsessive Saving Disorder. She always checks
the gas prices at every station near our house so she can save a few cents per
gallon. If prices are rising or falling rapidly, she'll even try to time when
she fills up to get the best price. Maybe she comes out ahead by a buck or two
sometimes. This same woman, who I love, also habitually pays bills late - or
not at all, resulting in costs that are orders of magnitude larger than what
she saves on gas. The only way to understand this behavior is to realize it's
all about _the obsession_ , not really about saving money. Gas prices must be
optimized. Bills needn't be. It all makes perfect sense as a manifestation of
OSD. I'll bet that's another variant that a lot of people here have
encountered.

------
ams6110
On the other end of the spectrum are the people with OSD (obsessive
serialization disorder) where everything goes into a one-lane FIFO queue and
the simplest request take a week to get done because so much else is lined up
ahead. These sorts of people insist on things like all requests for their time
being submitted through a ticket system of some sort.

------
louwrentius
Oh how I fool myself like this all day long. In reality this is what happens.

1\. start something that makes you wait for 60 seconds 2\. Do something else
in the mean time. 3\. Be distracted by that 'something else' 4\. Continue with
the original task after 10 minutes, having to read into what you were doing
again.

However, staring at a wall for 60 seconds is also not something that will
retain your focus. The only way is to find ways to speed up the tasks, so you
can stay in your 'zone' or 'flow' and don't have to switch tasks.

Sometimes it's better to just count to 20 and wait and continue instead of
letting yourself get distracted with other tasks.

And in a more broader sense, if it makes you feel good - working like this -
fine. It may make you just a more efficient worker, earning your due. It may
also result in people just piling more work on your shoulders in exchange (as
seen from the perspective of a salary man).

------
zkhalique
A lot of developers have this: [https://xkcd.com/303/](https://xkcd.com/303/)

I think there is a positive and a negative to this. The positive is that you
are constantly moving forward, so you have a lot of practice to sustain a
higher level of mental productivity. Sometimes you just want make the high-
impact decisions and outsource the mundane details to others, provided you can
trust them.

The negative is that you constantly feel that you are pulled somewhere. Which
means that you are not really the center of your life but something is always
missing, there is somewhere you have to be, there is some unfinished business.
So you can never really "stop and smell the roses". This also becomes a habit,
to the point where you have trouble settling down and enjoying a moment when
you need to.

Both muscles need to be exercised.

------
nathell
Taken to the extreme with microwave dials, this yields:

[http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/07/saving-time-with-
yo...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/07/saving-time-with-your-
microwave/)

------
shaunxcode
Reminds me of The Man Who Tried to Save Time by
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Krasilovsky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Krasilovsky)

------
ocd-shepherd
OCD sufferer and moderator over at the OCD subreddit
([http://www.reddit.com/r/OCD](http://www.reddit.com/r/OCD)) here.

I just wanted to expand on the point that several have already made about OCD:
It is a serious mental health condition, and more people need to become aware
of that.

Most people I have met have no clue that OCD can lead to things such as:

\- People losing their jobs and house because they're always late to work from
turning around to check the stove or door locks. \- People committing suicide
because they can't absolutely prove to themselves that they're not a
pedophile. (If you're scared/upset about the idea of being a pedophile, you're
most definitely not, please go get help.) \- People washing their hands until
they're cracked and bloody because of contamination fears. \- Mothers
neglecting their babies because they cannot handle the thoughts they keep
having of throwing their baby out the window or stabbing it with a kitchen
knife. They're scared they're a monster and that somehow they'll lose control
and actually do these horrible things that pop into their mind.

Everybody gets these thoughts from time to time, but OCD sufferers are plagued
by them, and the OCD complicates things further by making it very, very, very
difficult to accept the fact that these thoughts mean absolutely nothing and
that they're most definitely not going to lose control and do something hugely
against their morals. They'll ruminate on these thoughts over and over and
over again, involuntarily, getting more and more disturbed and upset.
Compulsions form as ways to attempt relieving the anxiety from these obsessive
and intrusive thoughts. An OCD sufferer will do absolutely anything to try to
silence these horrifying thoughts: avoiding children, taking pictures of their
stove or door locks on their phone, neglecting their children, etc. Here's the
thing: Trying to ignore these thoughts only makes them worse, keeping them in
your head, and causing a vicious feedback loop that makes OCD very easy to
spiral out of control.

It's true that articles like this and modern media in general unfortunately
continue to perpetuate widespread misconceptions. I don't point this out
because I'm just some overly-sensitive person with OCD and I don't like my
condition trivialized — frankly, I couldn't care less about that. The problem
is that there are MANY people out there who are suffering from OCD and have
absolutely no clue because their understanding of OCD is so far from reality.

I'm a perfect example of this. I'm a 25 year old (software engineer), and was
just diagnosed with OCD at the beginning of this month. Prior to my diagnosis,
I had NO CLUE what OCD was. All I knew is that I was disorganized and messy,
so there's no way I had that "OCD thing"... Oh, how wrong I was. After
learning about the condition, it's crystal clear that I've been suffering from
this condition as long as I can remember. I now understand that OCD has played
a very major role in my life, being responsible for enormous amounts of
depression, anxiety, and even suicide attempts. If I would have known what OCD
_really_ was and not just how it's portrayed in media, I could have gotten the
help I needed much, much earlier.

In closing, I just want to say that there is no permanent cure for OCD. Even
with SUCCESSFUL treatment, the thoughts never actually go away. At best, some
of us with OCD can get temporary relief by taking SSRI's and/or practicing
Exposure Response Prevention and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. More recently,
some mindfulness methods have been gaining credibility in the
scientific/academic community.

For more information, book suggestions, or even to join a chatroom and talk to
some real, live people with OCD, check out the portal I put together a few
days ago: [http://ocd.community/](http://ocd.community/)

Thanks for your understanding.

~~~
ocd-shepherd
Sorry about the list formatting, it's not letting me edit my comment, probably
because this is a new throwaway. (My real HN account is tied to my identity,
and I'm not "out" about my OCD).

------
valisystem
Oh, yes yes, I can relate so hard that I actually have to take care of not
getting mad after my SO when she breaks in those optimized routine she can't
possibly have any clue of.

------
clamprecht
I totally do this - I call it parallelizing (or avoiding blocking). I do it
both in programming, when it makes sense, and in everyday (non-programming)
things.

------
matdrewin
He lost me at "In fact, many of us who are working at a high pace and
functioning at a high level seem to experience this."

------
orblivion
Don't forget what the "D" stands for. If it's not maladaptive, I don't think
you can call it a disorder.

------
ceejayoz
No, it's not "like OCD". For some reason people think OCD means "haha I like
to have my kitchen pots organized" when it's really an often debilitating,
life-changing disorder. Please don't contribute to the trivialization of the
term.

------
markgavalda
Oh, it's not just me then?

~~~
creeble
The exact title of the email I just sent my wife, with the url to the story.

------
thenomad
As others on this thread have mentioned, full-blown OCD is considerably more
serious than it's commonly portrayed. It's as serious a health condition as
other mental illnesses like depression or bipolar disorder.

Cracked.com, of all places, wrote an excellent article on the subject of what
actual real-life OCD is like: [http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-no-one-
tells-you-about-...](http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-no-one-tells-you-
about-having-ocd/)

 _" Imagine the feeling of having a song stuck in your head. Now imagine that
instead of "It's Raining Men," it's the thought of murdering your best friend.
In graphic detail. Over and over again. You're not mad at your best friend,
and you've never done anything violent, but it won't stop playing.

You probably feel kind of shitty just reading that. But that's what the
"obsessive" part of OCD is like: intrusive, unwanted, disturbing thoughts that
won't go away. "_

For more information and details of what is or isn't OCD, the OCD subreddit is
apparently surprisingly good:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/OCD](http://www.reddit.com/r/OCD)

I'm sure that OP didn't mean anything hostile by his/her use of the term.
Given it's commonly misunderstood, and that causes genuine suffering, it's
worth bringing the nature of OCD up when it's discussed in this fashion!

~~~
aaron-lebo
I have OCD. It is almost entirely under control now, but it derailed me for a
good five years and put me in a depression so deep that I wanted to die.

Last week I actually wrote a very personal blog post about it if anyone is
interested in understanding the disorder and what it means. It also talks
about how I've personally tried to find meaning in life after dealing with it.
Kind of navel-gazey.

Sometimes my feathers get ruffled when people say stuff like "I'm so OCD" and
have no idea what they are talking about, but they really don't know any
better and I think it is okay to let it slide. Sometimes we do need to
trivialize horrible things (as long as we understand the real pain they cause)
in order to cope.

[http://lebo.io/2015/03/26/worth-the-fighting-
for.html](http://lebo.io/2015/03/26/worth-the-fighting-for.html)

~~~
thenomad
Agreed - I don't think people say "I'm so OCD" or similar out of malice.

A lot of people genuinely don't know what OCD is or why it might be harmful.
Hence I do think politely and briefly educating folk is a good thing, if only
so that one day if they experience the same symptoms they realise what they
are and seek help.

Really glad your OCD is under control, and well done. I'll add that post to my
informal list of OCD resources!

