Pathetic Fallacy/Irrational Beliefs/Compulsions and Obsessions

HungryJoe

I like to tell myself that I don't have many irrational beliefs, but - having been heavily influenced by cartoons and comics as a child, I'm a sucker for the pathetic fallacy. I have this nagging notion in the back of my mind that I should be nice to things like computers because they might, they just might have some type of human feelings.

NOW, I don't let this rule my life, and it's not a delusion that hampers my decision making ability. I just think it's very sad to see, for instance, a child's toy thrown away in the street.

The thing that really gets me though, is that I read a short story when I was very, very young about this girl who got into an elevator and complained loudly that the elevator was slow. The elevator retaliated by taking her to hell. As I said, I was very young, and that scared the beejesus out of me. To this very day, if I'm alone in an elevator, and it seems like it might be ready to fail, but then starts back up again, I say something like, "Thanks, elevator", because I'm still a little scared it might take me to hell. I have a friend who is very impatient, and she sometimes complains that an elevator is slow. I always tell her not to say that and that the elevator is doing a great job and we all appreciate all the elevators in the world. Of course, she's in on the joke, so she doesn't think I'm insane when I say this.

I cannot see a plastic six-pack holder thingee without picking it up and using my multitool keychain to cut through all the hole-y bits, so that it doesn't end up hurting some seagull or some poor thing halfway around the world.

I know Scrym pride themselves on their more-Vulcan-than-Vulcan uber-rationality, but come one: In a forum full of geeks, someone has to have some weird obsessions/compulsions/ or irrationalities. Please tell us about them here.

SquadronROE

You never know when that elevator may be listening. Best to be safe about it.

The only thing I can think of is my car. I pat it on the hood whenever I get ready to get into it.

Nuri

I name my electronics and my car, and I talk to them. But it's not so much of a caring about their feelings thing as it is a tendency to talk to anything.

I also have compulsions to stamp out still-smoking cigarette butts, but luckily that is significantly less of an issue in my new location.

I also yell at people on TV for being stupid, wrong, presenting something in a skewed way, or for really bad writing.

Apreche

I also yell at people on TV for being stupid, wrong, presenting something in a skewed way, or for really bad writing.

I do yell at sports on TV. I have no belief that they can hear me. I think it's just a habit I inherited from my family.

Anthony Heman

I often feel like I'm inherently lucky, because I get what I need when I need it. Just recently playing diablo 2, I sold a 4 socket crystal sword not realizing I would need one in a couple more hours. As soon as I realized that, next pack of enemies gave me a 4 socket crystal sword. Same thing happened with a polearm, hat, and a scroll of town portal when I ran out.

Am I just an optimist? I don't think so. In general, I'm an incredibly misanthropic pessimist about everything. Is it retroactive thinking (see the result, re-write my own memories or thoughts regarding the situation)? I don't think so, I'm fairly analytical. I just feel lucky.

First and only time in a Cassino, $150 off the first bet. Never bothered to try again.

I did buy a lottery ticket once. It didn't win. So I'm not THAT lucky.

Dragonmaster Lou

I also yell at people on TV for being stupid, wrong, presenting something in a skewed way, or for really bad writing.

I do yell at sports on TV. I have no belief that they can hear me. I think it's just a habit I inherited from my family.

I do the same, but not out of habit I inherited. I thin it's more along the lines of an emotional release when my team is doing well/poorly.

Apreche

I also yell at people on TV for being stupid, wrong, presenting something in a skewed way, or for really bad writing.

I do yell at sports on TV. I have no belief that they can hear me. I think it's just a habit I inherited from my family.

I do the same, but not out of habit I inherited. I thin it's more along the lines of an emotional release when my team is doing well/poorly.

The emotional release is usually just cheering or booing. I'm yelling and talking even before anything happens. Like I'm giving them orders. "Do not drop the ball, do you hear me!?"

gomidog

I like to tell myself that I don't have many irrational beliefs, but - having been heavily influenced by cartoons and comics as a child, I'm a sucker for the pathetic fallacy. I have this nagging notion in the back of my mind that I should be nice to things like computers because they might, they just might have some type of human feelings.

Oh my gosh, I am the exact same way. Like, if one sock gets lost in the wash, I feel sorry for the remaining one, and I apologize to computers and cell phones if I say mean things to them for crashing. Toys are especially subject to this, but I apply anthropomorphism to lots of stuff. That Ikea commercial with the lamp hits the nail on the head.
Let's see, other ones include:
- I have lots of lucky items, like lucky jewelry or tshirts or pens, which are used in different specific situations. Some guard against getting sick, some are good for traveling, and some are for taking tests. I know it is superstitious, but I am a sucker for luck. I think it is a little bit to do with OCD.
- I always worry about getting rare, deadly diseases when I am stressed out. If I am feeling bleh, my first thought is that it must be rabies or something. "It isn't a zebra" and all that notwithstanding.
- Also, Scott, I argue with the TV when there is political stuff I disagree with and Rym reminds me "They can't hear you."

open_sketchbook

Thanks to a lifetime of depression, I have have a knee-jerk tendency to blame myself when things go wrong. Even when it makes [i]absolutely no sense[/i]. I apologize when people are late for things because of traffic, I feel guilty when somebody else fails to turn in homework, that sort of thing. Fortunately, I've been getting a lot better recently.

As a holdover from being an angry teenage female supremacist, I still find it hard to disagree with something if a woman says it, even if it's fundamentally against everything I stand for. For example, if there is a debate between a woman and a man, and the woman says that we should bomb every country ever because everyone is the terrorists, I feel a stabbing guilt for disagreeing, like it's sexist to hold a different opinion than a woman (or that I'm sexist for favouring whatever argument the guy is putting forth)

YoshoKatana

I also have that sad/sick conflation, especially around fall/winter. If I'm feeling kind of depressed, tired, or vaguely disassociated, I'll put a hand to my forehead just to make sure I don't have a fever. It's kind of silly.

Also, I'll mutter threats to code that I'm working on when it's glitching on me.

InvaderREN

I don't turn my car lights on until there are no cars approaching me. It's like, I don't want them to SEE me turn them on.

TheWhaleShark

I cling tenaciously and naively to the belief that people can actually change their mind about something when presented with enough evidence.

I have a need to organize things in some kind of pattern before I can actually work with them. A pattern of some sort accompanies anything I do. If I start snapping my fingers in a rhythm, I can't do anything else until I finish the pattern.

I can't talk on the phone and do anything else (consciously) because the phone takes my entire focus.

I am almost incapable of talking without hand gestures. If I sit on my hands, my eloquence declines, and moreover, I feel incredibly uncomfortable when talking with immobilized hands. And yes, I make hand gestures at people to whom I am speaking on the phone.

Whenever I am eating a salty snack, if I am holding a subunit of that snack in my hand, I will gently and compulsively shake that item. I think it's an effort to dislodge excess salt, but it's actually completely unconscious on my part.

Apreche

I cling tenaciously and naively to the belief that people can actually change their mind about something when presented with enough evidence.

Smart people will change their mind.

Whenever I am eating a salty snack, if I am holding a subunit of that snack in my hand, I will gently and compulsively shake that item. I think it's an effort to dislodge excess salt, but it's actually completely unconscious on my part.

You do do this!

Bronzdragon

I empathize with my computer, but only when I'm doing recreational tasks on it. If I'm working on it, I won't feel any sympathy at all.

Apsup

Sometimes when I have to wait for traffic lights to turn red I give a silent prayer to the spirits of traffics lights, so they would bless me with green. If the light turns green just before I come to the them I thank the spirits of the lights and if I happen to walk red light, I ask for forgiveness.

It's not that I in any way believe in such spirits that control the traffic lights, but that's just a silly habit I have developed.

Viga

I talk to the dead. I know they can't hear me. I know they aren't ghosts. I know there's not a heaven or hell. No such things as spirits. I still talk to them and pretend they are ghosts in my presence. I explain this as "creating ghosts." I talk to my friend on the road to school at the talking bench. Mom I generally will say stuff to anywhere. I think it's pretty irrational and kinda dumb, but it helps somehow.

I hate books in the bathroom because they will get bathroom germs. They don't belong there!

I sometimes believe in good luck/bad luck, but not as much as I did a few years back.

Ikatono

I used to have a lot of compulsions, but I think I've grown out of most of the more annoying ones. Every once in a while I used to find myself taking exactly two steps on every square on the sidewalk, or having both feet take the same number of steps on wet ground vs dry ground or light vs shadow, things like that. Now I mostly just have a weird association with

5 1 8 4
6 2 7 3

I often find myself tapping my fingers in that order, or moving my jaw to follow that motion, or finding someway to express it in physical movement. Shit's kinda weird.

Josh Bytes

Whenever I go shopping or to a restaurant and the place is dead with no other customers. There will be times when the place will suddenly experience a rush of customers. And I can't help but feel like I somehow made the rush happen. I like to refer to this phenomenon as "I am the shit here come the flies"

Erwin

I like to treat my car as it is were a TARDIS.

Churba

Smart people will change their mind.

You say that, but in my experience, many smart people tend to come up with better excuses than dumb people as to why they shouldn't change their mind.

Nukerjsr

-Usually when I try to make a deadline or simply just race to get something done, I'll easily count down from 10 and speed things up.

-I also tend to look to technology as valuable and generally a positive thing, because it kept me from drugs when still living in my small town. Seriously, when everyone you know is doing some fowl, you can always look to the internet to talk to people.

-I'm a bit paranoid over why people like to portray small towns as "Honest, Hard-working, beacons of Morality and Wisdom." So not the fucking truth. >_>

-Sometimes when I listen to a podcast, I'll just set and concentrate on what I'm hearing, even though I could easily multi-task.

-I'll easily keep on the TV just for background noise, mild distraction, food ideas.

Rym

I often find myself tapping my fingers in that order, or moving my jaw to follow that motion, or finding someway to express it in physical movement. Shit's kinda weird.

YoshoKatana

I used to have a lot of compulsions, but I think I've grown out of most of the more annoying ones. Every once in a while I used to find myself taking exactly two steps on every square on the sidewalk, or having both feet take the same number of steps on wet ground vs dry ground or light vs shadow, things like that

Oh wow. I had the exact same compulsions when I was a kid. Is there some form of widespread, mild OCD that people have growing up?

GreyHuge

Now I mostly just have a weird association with

5 1 8 4
6 2 7 3

I often find myself tapping my fingers in that order, or moving my jaw to follow that motion, or finding someway to express it in physical movement. Shit's kinda weird.

Fuck, now I am doing it.

Xefas

When I was a kid, when I'd walk on a floor made of a bunch of appropriately sized squares, I'd get a strong compulsion to place my feet as if I were a knight in chess.

I still get that feeling occasionally now, but weakly.

Anthony Heman

I write down some of my dreams I can remember for later reading. I'm not necessarily pulling a Jung on it, but I definitely go back over them from time to time and try to analyze where I was at in my life that might have pulled me to those places in my mind.

gomidog

When I was a kid, I could not have my feet on the floor when a backhoe drove past, otherwise it would get me with its claw.

AndouReiya

I am fully conscious that they're harmless, but I scream in panic whenever a bug flies near me, or worse, if I see a black witch moth. I have a really bad case of entomophobia, and these moths are particularly common here in Bogotá.

I also hate it when my mom's the first person to congratulate me for my birthday. it often makes it take a turn for the worse.

I shout at the TV too, during football matches (No, you gotta block Messi, ya idiot!), and I correct news anchors when they pronounce something in english badly (which is 99% of the time).

I name my stuff too, and at times thank them for their hard work or curse at them.

Whenever I'm angry and I feel like screaming out what I feel, I feel ice in my throat, literally. Feels like I swallowed a chunk of ice and the skin feels cold to touch. It's weird.

I'm very messy, but when I stay at someone else's house, I become extremely tidy and fastidious. I also feel pain (no kidding) when something's off-key. For some odd reason (called absolute pitch), I can tell if something's not on tune for 1/3rd or 1/4th of a tone, so it grates my nerves if someone's being off-key on purpose. Makes me want to go deaf. The advantage is that I can tune a guitar without any tuning devices!

I also hate to throw anything into the trash if I'm not home. SO my pockets are full of bots of paper and such.

I'm suuuuuuuuuuuch a weirdo!

Rym

I used to flip a coin in my youth every now and again. If it came up tails, everything was dandy. If it came up heads, I'd be on guard for some imminent catastrophe and prepared to deal with it.

I leave a tiny amount of wine in my glass as a sort of libation, though I've been known to cheat when the wine is particularly fine.

Nine Boomer

I leave a tiny amount of wine in my glass as a sort of libation, though I've been known to cheat when the wine is particularly fine.

I leave tiny amounts behind with every liquid. I have a glass of eggnog with less than a centimeter left and I have lost all interest in drinking it. I do this so often I don't even consider it as strange until you reminded me.

Dr. Zibbelcoot PhD

I can't sleep in a room with open windows or doors, this includes all bathroom and especially closet doors. If they're open I won't be able to know if something came out of them while I'm sleeping.

I'm an extremely light sleeper so if they start closed, any of them opening will wake me up and I can then wake James up to save me from whatever is trying to get me.