# I feel like a kid again... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 18, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703 "2005-10-18T03:02:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/1 "2005-10-18T03:02:58Z")
… because I’m putting off doing my homework. 😃 Of course, I didn’t have the internet to distract me back then, but I’m making up for lost time now! It’s stupid, really: I have 25% of a 2-page paper written, I even know what I’m going to write the rest of it about, and if I’d just buckle down and get 'er done I could probably be in bed an hour from now. But nooooo. I’m going to repeatedly check my e-mail (yeah, there were no new messages 2 minutes ago, either), and share this incredibly mundane and pointless stuff here (mundane and pointless seems to be my “thing” lately), and put off finishing this stupid paper that I should have started writing on Saturday and that is due tomorrow night. I’m a grownup. I _enjoy_ school now. I shouldn’t be procrastinating like this. Willfully. Methodically. I guess some things really don’t ever change: I’ve always been the queen of the last-minute papers, and perhaps it was folly to believe that maturity would eradicate this trait (_good_ last-minute papers, mind you – I have a 3.8 average in my grad work so far). Ok. It’s almost 11pm, and I have a meeting in the morning, so it’s time to force myself to concentrate and finish this paper. Back to organizational contexts, personal and situational authority, and orality vs. literacy. Half a page down, one and a half pages to go! ---
**Author:** ![TwoOnSunday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@TwoOnSunday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoOnSunday)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/2 "2005-10-18T03:08:25Z")
Procrastinators Unite! Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that the paper I thought was due tonight is not due until next Monday. The research and outline are done. Now I get to beat myself up for the next week for not finishing the paper until the night before. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/3 "2005-10-18T03:38:40Z")
Congrats on having a later deadline than you thought! Now, what is this “outline” of which you speak? 😉 I always _dreaded_ having to turn in outlines when I was in high school/college (mostly high school, I think), because being someone who writes at the last minute means no time for outlines! No rough drafts, either – I revise as I go along. I know that I’ll have to write a few heavy-duty research papers for this program, though – not to mention my thesis – so I’m sure that my outline time will come. But I will put it off for as long as humanly possible. 😃 (I’m at the top of page two…half a page just took half an hour, but I think the rest of it will only take another half hour. I may not be done before midnight, but it won’t be much after!) ---
**Author:** ![Nilor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a4c791/32.png) [@Nilor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nilor)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/4 "2005-10-18T06:02:19Z")
out…line? Always hated those…the way I write does not lend itself to rough drafts or outlines Oh, and what’s your email? I could send ya somethin’ every 10-15 min just to keep ya checkin’ =) ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/5 "2005-10-18T15:17:01Z")
> [@Nilor](#): > > I could send ya somethin’ every 10-15 min just to keep ya checkin’ =) 🙂 I finally finished around 1am. If I hadn’t continued to procrastinate I would have been done by midnight, as estimated, but apparently I’m physically incapable of writing an entire page at once. In a little while I will double-check my cites and “works cited” page to make sure they are MLA-compliant, and then I’ll print the copies that I need for tonight’s class. See y’all again in 3 weeks, when the next paper’s due. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TwoOnSunday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@TwoOnSunday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoOnSunday)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/6 "2005-10-18T17:00:10Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > Congrats on having a later deadline than you thought! > > Now, what is this “outline” of which you speak? 😉 It’s a vaguely worded, scribbled-out list of what I may want to add into the paper. It’s never in the actual order the paper turns out. Completing the “outline” allows for further procrastination by making me think I have actually accomplished something. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/7 "2005-10-18T17:17:55Z")
I think you’re my long lost twin sister… not that I’m in School now, but I _am_ in the Software Engineering industry. Coding? No prob. Guess what happens when Da Man wants Analysis(?) documents, Requirements(??), Specs (???) – not to mention a full-fledged Design Document ( 😕 ). Yeah right :rolleyes: I end up scribbling something at the last minute. Probably after it’s all coded anyway ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/8 "2005-10-18T17:29:41Z")
> [@Noone Special](#): > > not to mention a full-fledged Design Document ( 😕 ). Yeah right :rolleyes: Them’s fightin’ words: I’m a technical writer at a software company. Developers who submit half-assed design documents are my sworn enemies. 😉 (Oops, I meant :mad:. Yeah, that’s it.) ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/9 "2005-10-18T17:52:50Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > Them’s fightin’ words: I’m a technical writer at a software company. Developers who submit half-assed design documents are my sworn enemies. 😉 > > (Oops, I meant :mad:. Yeah, that’s it.) Ah! My arch-nemesis, the Technical Writer. \* I keep ours confused by submitting my Error Message texts (for I18N) in English and making her translate them (back) into Hebrew… 😃 Oh… and you were winking at me? 😉 \*Just because I take my professional pride (too?) seriously: no, I don’t actually work that way. I just feel like it far too often… ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/10 "2005-10-18T18:08:49Z")
Never put off till tomorrow what you can put off till next week, or get out of doing altogether. > [@TwoOnSunday](#): > > Procrastinators Unite! Maybe later. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/11 "2005-10-18T18:19:35Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > Them’s fightin’ words: I’m a technical writer at a software company. Developers who submit half-assed design documents are my sworn enemies. 😉 > … I have bad news for you. There’s a newish fad in software development called XP, or “eXtreme Programming,” whose tenets are (my wording): 1. Anything that programmers don’t like doing is bad. 2. Anything that involves documentation (especially design docs) is especially bad. 3. If (1) and (2) conspire to cause a project to fail, then it’s the fault of the customer! 4. If anything else fails, it’s the fault of management. While this sounds like a joke, it’s actually catching on. Get out while you still can! ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/12 "2005-10-18T23:17:09Z")
> [@Nilor](#): > > Oh, and what’s your email? I could send ya somethin’ every 10-15 min just to keep ya checkin’ =) If you click on her screen name\* at the top of the message, you’ll get a list of options, one of which is **Send e-mail to misnomer**. Click on that link and you’ll get her address. If this option isn’t available to guests, that could be your cue to pay up. Membership has its privileges, after all! - or any member’s name. Note, however, that some **Dopers** choose not to publicize this information. ---
**Author:** ![MrShine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@MrShine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrShine)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/13 "2005-10-19T01:02:36Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > Them’s fightin’ words: I’m a technical writer at a software company. Developers who submit half-assed design documents are my sworn enemies. 😉 > > (Oops, I meant :mad:. Yeah, that’s it.) interesting to note that it’s the developer who gets the smilies right… could explain some of the instruction manuals i’ve seen lately… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nilor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a4c791/32.png) [@Nilor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nilor)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/14 "2005-10-19T02:52:32Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > I have bad news for you. There’s a newish fad in software development called XP, or “eXtreme Programming,” whose tenets are (my wording): > > 1. Anything that programmers don’t like doing is bad. > 2. Anything that involves documentation (especially design docs) is especially bad. > 3. If (1) and (2) conspire to cause a project to fail, then it’s the fault of the customer! > 4. If anything else fails, it’s the fault of management. > > While this sounds like a joke, it’s actually catching on. Get out while you still can! Not quite…I’ll just say that there’s extensive use of prototypes so as to allow the developers to get a better idea of what the customer wants. And you forgot source control… ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/15 "2005-10-19T03:02:31Z")
> [@Noone Special](#): > > I keep ours confused by submitting my Error Message texts (for I18N) in English and making her translate them (back) into Hebrew… 😃 That’s just not nice! :eek: 🙂 > [@](#): > > Oh… and you were winking at me? 😉 Well, I winked, but then realized that it softened the otherwise stern, arch-nemesis-y tone of my message. Consider that the beta. 😉 > [@](#): > > no, I don’t actually work that way. I just feel like it far too often… Oh, I know what you mean… > [@TimeWinder](#): > > I have bad news for you. There’s a newish fad in software development called XP, or “eXtreme Programming,” Oh yeah? Well, just wait until the developers hear about eXtreme Documentation (XD)! We don’t even need an application! 😃 > [@MrShine](#): > > interesting to note that it’s the developer who gets the smilies right… I wasn’t aware of having gotten any wrong. 🙂 > [@](#): > > could explain some of the instruction manuals i’ve seen lately… 🙂 Hmm, I have a certain phrase that I like to keep handy for situations like this … what was it again? … oh yeah: bite me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/16 "2005-10-19T05:10:42Z")
Today, I spent a great deal of the 6 six hours I set aside to do my two-page essay playing _T&C Surf Design_. I expended far more brain power choosing between Tiki Man and Joe Cool than on anything even remotely related to my paper so now I’m stuck here at 1:00 AM slowly punching it out. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-a-kid-again/326703/17 "2005-10-19T06:46:38Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > That’s just not nice! :eek: 🙂 What? Did I miss the memo? Is today Be-nice-to-your-technical-writer Day? Oh, you aren’t **my** technical writer!? OK, I’ll be nice to you then… 🙂 > [@](#): > > Well, I winked, but then realized that it softened the otherwise stern, arch-nemesis-y tone of my message. Consider that the beta. 😉 Looks like it’s almost ready for production. We’ll need to run some Intergration Tests first, but otherwise… 😉 > [@](#): > > Oh yeah? Well, just wait until the developers hear about eXtreme Documentation (XD)! We don’t even need an application! 😃 Isn’t that the way things work already? You end up with a huge pile of ducuments and no project? ☹ > [@](#): > > I wasn’t aware of having gotten any wrong. 🙂 I was right then, you **were** winking at me (😉 back) As for XP – seriously speaking, it’s already on the way out as a true Programming Paradigm. It _is_ good for rapid prototyping as part of a “Spiral” development model – “let’s put together a demo and hammer out what the Specs really are by playing around with it” is actually a sound way of working.