As a computer programmer, I found similarities between human habits and software. I develop softwares and make them act or interpret stuff in a certain way. In the same way, humans are programmed in their early childhood to also behave in certain way by their parents/caretakers. Parents program their children to develop resourceful habits (which I also call softwares) such as brushing teeth, paying respect to elders, dinner etiquette, and studying new concepts. Parents could also program children to ingrain destructive habits, such as, making excuses, procrastination, approval seeking, avoiding confrontation etc. Some of those habits children carry on for the rest of their lives.
This morning I started to wonder if parents are similar to programmers? In my field, a good programmer completes his project within deadline, comply with coding convention, write intelligent logic and less faulty softwares, and unit tests his code. On the other hand, parents probably also see raising their children as a large project which has deadlines (i.e. setting them free at certain age when they are capable to take care of themselves). Parents also comply social conventional rules (i.e. eating healthy foods, paying respect, and going to school) and raise their children to be the best they can. There are always times parents could spoil their children with undesirable habits (even if they don't mean to).
I sometimes wonder how nice it would be if my parents program me certain habits; and prevent me to establish faulty ones. But the cool thing about humans is that they are self aware and have ability to be flexible. So, even if someone might be a result of bad programming doesn't mean he cannot REPROGRAM himself. That's really a nice thing about being a human!
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