As humans, we are often beset by "analysis paralysis". My very first computer programming instructor had this phrase posted on the blackboard. He often cited it when teaching us the basics of COBOL. In those days, it was fairly easy to create a fatal error resulting in a core dump. Output went to the printer which used huge amounts of paper printing nonsense. After observing it the first time, we were terrified of repeating the same error. After my first one, the instructor asked me if my heart was still beating. "Yes, it is", I replied. "Good! If no one died, then the error isn't fatal", he stated. Lesson learned!!
The best lesson was that once you made a fatal computer error, the solution was to "fix the damned problem" and get back to productive work.
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