{"id":108,"date":"2025-04-03T13:57:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T13:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.familie-kleinman.nl\/brain\/?p=108"},"modified":"2025-04-03T14:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T14:14:11","slug":"i-surprised-myself-and-then-spent-the-night-debugging-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familie-kleinman.nl\/brain\/index.php\/2025\/04\/03\/i-surprised-myself-and-then-spent-the-night-debugging-it\/","title":{"rendered":"I surprised myself \u2014 And then spent the night debugging it"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unexpected confrontation at our garden club\u2019s assembly led to an avalanche of thoughts, introspection \u2014 and, ultimately, code-level debugging of my own behavior.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Introduction<\/h1>\n

I was planning to write \u2014 and publish \u2014 a blogpost every so often. Maybe 3 or 4 times a week at most.\u00a0 There\u2019s just so much to write about! And as the days go by, I find myself enjoying the process more and more.<\/p>\n

So why am I really writing this? Because something happened. And it shook me \u2014 in a good and bad way.<\/p>\n

Please bear with me,\u00a0 the introduction to this story is quite long.<\/p>\n

Context<\/h2>\n

Yesterday we had the annual General Assembly for our Garden Club. Because I’m part of the “garden committee”, a group of volunteers, who do some extra work on and around our premises, I also had an active role yesterday.<\/p>\n

Try to imagine an older lady in your neighborhood \u2014 the kind who knows everyone and everything that\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Also try to imagine that I created a report for the general assembly, describing what we did, what we didn\u2019t do \u2014 and why \u2014 as the garden committee last year.<\/p>\n

And combine the two together and you can imagine that both already knew everything we did, what we didn’t do, and why we didn’t do the latter part.<\/p>\n

And for the last piece of context, yes I know, this intro is getting longer and longer.<\/p>\n

We had a list of tasks we intended to do but had to change priorities during the year. Our drainage was not working properly which had to be fixed. And on top of that we had to up our safety on and around our compound. Similar gardens in our vicinity suffered from vandalism and even fires while our garden was unharmed.<\/p>\n

So back to the main point: they already knew all of this \u2014 and it was all written down in our report. And just to make it extra clear: guess who wrote all the newsletters (yup, me…) \u2014 and included all that information there too.<\/p>\n

So that should be it right?<\/p>\n

You guessed it…<\/p>\n

NOPE!<\/p>\n

Taking the stage, part #1<\/h2>\n

When the agenda item passed about the garden committee I got the stage from the chairman, stood up and the fun started.<\/p>\n

I asked all the members if there were any questions about the report we wrote. And yup, there she was, she had a “question<\/strong>“. (Basically a rhetorical one!).<\/p>\n

Her question was: \u201cYou promised a lot of things last year \u2014 like doing chore A, B, and C \u2014 and none of those were done. Why is that?<\/em>\u201d She already *KNEW* the reasoning behind all the decisions! She was trying to pull some nasty trick and throw us under the proverbial bus!<\/p>\n

For once I came prepared, I could handle her question perfectly. I stated that everything was in the report why it wasn’t done. And explained it again to the whole group.<\/p>\n

Then she came with another passive-aggressive comment that it might be an idea to inform all members about the changes.<\/p>\n

I surprised myself in that moment. Normally I would clam up, but I actually had an answer ready, the newsletters, remember :-), which shut her up.<\/p>\n

Taking the stage, part #2<\/h2>\n

At the end of the meeting, during the “Any other business (AOB)” item, she had a question \/ remark addressed at the chairman about possible manure pollution and possible overfertilization, yup, this part is boring as f*ck, pardon my French :P.<\/p>\n

Because I’m part of the garden community group I responded that she has a point<\/strong>, while trying to acknowledge her concern<\/strong>, but that there is no easy solution<\/strong>. We don’t have rules for it, the law only states limits per hectare and the limitations in time as everyone is a volunteer, let alone that sampling certain areas of the garden will cost money.<\/p>\n

Then the fun started. She interrupted my answer several times and made a nasty remark that I basically stated “tough luck, live with it!”, which was NOT<\/strong> what I was trying to convey!<\/p>\n

My take on it: She was trying to gaslight me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So I repeated my answer again, she interrupted me again and again, and yet again…<\/p>\n

But then, unexpectedly, I did something I did not expect to do!<\/p>\n

“Hey. When you talk, I listen and when I talk you listen. Could you please give me that courtesy!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like… whut!? I wasn\u2019t expecting that reaction from myself \u2014 but weirdly, it felt kind of… right? ”<\/p>\n

Then the turmoil inside started, and now I’m finally, yes finally! at the point where I wanted to write about.<\/p>\n

What an intro Brain!<\/p>\n

Turmoil<\/h2>\n

Yeah, that\u2019s when my brain really kicked into high gear. It did what it always does: It started almost all processes it could find, all at the same time!”<\/p>\n

A part of the processes that kicked into gear:<\/p>\n