Recognizing the Mistake

Some people might think that the computer programming courses I took in college were a waste of time. They may have not helped me earn any money or led to position at a tech company; but spending that time writing code influenced the way I think about computers. 

One of my professors taught us that while most people think computers are really “smart,” they are actually quite “dumb.” They can only process one instruction at a time. They don’t “remember” what came before, and they can’t “anticipate” what might come next. They only follow the instructions they are given.

They can do that at a very high rate of speed that keeps increasing year after year. That’s the reason companies keep coming out with more powerful models and we keep thinking we need to upgrade. I suppose we hope we will eventually buy a device that really is “smart.” 

It may only be a few hours or it may take a few weeks, but eventually the new desktop, laptop, tablet, or game console is going to “freeze up.” For a while everything is going great. All your programs are opening faster than you can believe. The video displays details that are stunning.  The controls are so responsive you are tempted to believe it is anticipating your moves. But then; everything stops. Nothing works.

When I was assigned to write simple programs back in college, it was challenging to think through a process and break it down into it component parts. You had to consider not only where to start and what outcome you desired, but all of the decisions that had to be made along the way. If one condition existed, that called for a particular response. If another condition, that called for something very different.

If you weren’t careful (and sometimes, even if you were), you might include a test statement that resulted in the computer doing the same test over and over and over. In programming terms, it’s called an “infinite loop.”  As a novice programmer there was only one solution: find the mistake and correct it.

I wonder how many people feel like their life has been caught in an “infinite loop.” Something is going on in the background that seems to be consuming more and more of their energy; but is not helping them move toward their goals. It is keeping them from experiencing the joy they crave. How would you gracefully help them find the mistake and correct it?

That’s another important step in sharing your faith.