19th December 2004, 2:02 PM
At a certain point, any additional efforts to protect one's stuff no longer has any benificial effect. When there is no longer any benefit, an action is either done to obey orders, or is done to put one's fears at ease. When it is done to put one's fears at ease even though the one doing it is likely fully aware of how meaningless it is, I would venture that it is a sign of... what's that thing where people wash their hands like 50 times in a row or flip off a light switch over and over every night because they want it in the "offest position possible, it's not OFF enough dangit!"? That's what this is. Hard to really do anything about it, even when the person is fully aware that it's just a little mental quirk. So long as it doesn't progress to the point where such actions actually get in the way of a productive life, it's really just a little quirk. It would pay to realize that such actions do nothing to protect the system any more than just simply keeping it in the entertainment center would.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)