mashing

if you’re unfamiliar with what “mashing” is, i’ll try to explain.

“mashing” is when there is a logical way to reach a solution,
but instead of going on that path,
you guess a solution until you either give up or it miraculously works.

in the context of fighting games, when you get knocked down to the ground,
you have to respond to a multitude of possible attacks from the opponent:
overhead? low? grab? shimmy? drive impact?
they’re all, in your mashing mindset, equally likely.

so, not wanting to waste any precious brain power,
you input DP and get blocked and punished for your foolishness.

but imagine if it had worked?

mashing doesn’t only apply to fighting games.

if you’re trying to log onto a website you rarely use
with a password you barely remember
but pridefully say to yourself, “i think i know the password…”,
only to try and fail several times?

this is “mashing."

the high that you get when mashing works is incredible.
i think this is why people continue to mash.

we’re all a little motivated by beating the odds and gambling,
even if we don’t want to admit it.

today, i mashed in a few different ways:

• i mashed while asking chatGPT to write code that was far too complex to handle
• and i mashed trying to figure out how to get the header on this page to show properly
  • i ended up fixing it by making a specific format .html for this type of page.

mashing is a dangerous habit.
it’s easy to get into, and it’s hard to get out of.

if you find yourself mashing in your day-to-day life,
stop to consider: “is this really the best way to go about this?”

for tasks like my gstreamer plugin, this might not work,
because the mental overhead of learning the right way is tougher than just mashing.

but for tasks like a forgotten password?
maybe instead of spending 10 minutes guessing,
you can spend 3 minutes just resetting it.

this post is not to demonize mashing.
it’s a valid, if not crude, solution-finding method.

but sometimes, as a wise man once said:

“This isn’t the time to use that!
-Professor Oak

thank you for reading today’s post.
let’s all try to balance mashing and not-mashing more often.
while we’re at it, mashed potatoes could be nice too.