Aurini comments on Would Your Real Preferences Please Stand Up? - Less Wrong

42 Post author: Yvain 08 August 2009 10:57PM

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Comment author: Aurini 13 August 2009 09:10:57PM *  15 points [-]

I used to have a mild case of OCD.

Let's say I cracked my first knuckle. Well, of course I'm going to crack the other three to balance things out. But then I mess up - my ring finger is only 70% cracked. I can feel it in the joint, a sort of localized anxiety (sort of like an itch, or a joint that needs stretching, but it's a purely psychological irritation). Obviously I can't 30% crack my knuckle - that's no different than moving the finger. So I have to over crack it, up to 130%, and then follow up with the other three fingers.

But now I"ve hit a problem - I've cracked each finger twice, that's not a good number. Things feel worse than they did before the crack. I'd better square things out, so that each finger has been cracked four times - that's a good number. But now my right hand is bothering me, so to even it out I crack each finger there four times. And... oh, what the hell. We'll crack each finger sixteen times. That's 2^8 * 2^4 - gorgeous. I mean, just look at that notation! How much prettier could you want it to be?

Everything's fine until next time I need to crack something... shudder

I eventually forced myself to stop doing this during my last years of High School. It was ridiculous, and I knew it, but each time I encountered it I'd have that itch. But I forced myself to ignore it, the same way you can't scratch your nose while you're on stage, and eventually I broke the habit. But even thinking about it now makes me want to do something that's exponentially symmetrical...

NO! NO, I WON'T GIVE INTO YOU OCD!

;)