Tech Loops of Despair (and how to exit them)
I. Love. Loops.
Loops are such an interesting concept that come up over and over and over and over again (insert laugh for loop pun). The podcast RadioLab did a fascinating episode on Loops which I’ve listened to more than once (though not on a loop, I assure you).
Loops in technology can mean a particular thing. In the most basic sense, it means the computer has or receives a collection of things -like a grocery list, or an array of names, or a set of records from your database - and is instructed to visit each of the items in the collection individually. Most of the time we are also asking the computer to do something to each of the items in the collection. Perhaps to go through each item on the grocery list and compare it to another list of items we have in the kitchen already, or for each name in an array to make sure the first letter is capitalized, or for each record in our database to update it with a certain value.
But woe be to the poor soul who enters a never-ending tech loop. It has the power to break systems, overload your storage, undermine your security, and generally cause you to go totally fucking crazy.
I’m not just talking about when your actual computer is stuck in a loop. I’m also talking about when YOU - yes you the human person - are stuck in a loop and can’t seem to get out of it. When it comes to technology, any of us can (and will) fall subject to an unending Tech Loop of Despair. This is when you are trying to get your tech to work for you, and it keeps pushing back and not getting your desired result. So you push back. And it pushes back. And you push back again. And it pushes you back again.
And then eventually you throw your computer at the wall and walk away, never to mess with the stress again.
But I come bearing hope! I was recently stuck in BOTH a tech loop of despair and an actual technology never-ending looping problem. It was almost too much - but there ARE ways to get out of it.
Please enjoy this video I made in my car after feeling the rushing joy of finding out how to exit the loop:
