Learned Help-less-ness

New term for those unfamiliar....I was until I was enlightened by a brilliant man named Mudge this week. Mudge is a computer geek--so he was using this term to describe our inability to take care of ourselves, our networks really, when we learn of vulnerabilities and think our only solution is to wait for a patch....from the vendor.

Lets skip the whys and whats of this whole discussion cause I am computer-ed out for the week. But I would love to share my thoughts on using this term generally in life. I have thought about this over and over and over again during my last few days in CA and through the experiences of negotiating the trip back. There are many amongst us that are operating in this fashion. The ticket counter at UNITED--prime example. One of the auto-check-in counters is out of paper...and therefore is unable to print out a ticket. What do people do??? They wait and wait and wait and wait for someone to come by and then ask them what should I do? Instead of just taking ACTION and trying a different terminal.

We are so fearful. Fearful of messing something up. This is a great example of fear. I thought to myself WHAT could possibility be the Worst Case Scenario (WCS) here? Are people afraid that they have checked in once...so if they try to us a different computer they will not be able to take the flight? Does this make ANY SENSE?

And here we are: learned help-less-ness. We would RATHER sit on our laurels and wait for someone to help us. Perhaps we decide what our required level of effort should be and then make judgments from here. Should we only be required to spend 2 minutes of thinking time when we attempt to check-in? And so when that time elapses, and things go a-rye...well we freak out and wait for someone to come and cuddle us like a baby.

WE expect people to help us, to do things for us, and to be taken care of. This is the same mentality that gets us into trouble when crime happens around us. "Oh yeah officer, I saw them practicing crazy car maneuvers in front of my house for the past few months, but I didn't report it...I just figured they were having fun."

Yeah! When they robbed the bank around the corner! Or blew up a building!

This is NOT to say I am immune to this behavior...actually I spent a good deal of time thinking about it on my way home and resolving to become my own "personal helper" who works JUST FOR ME!! on my problems as I wander through the next few months. I will keep you posted on awareness of learned help-less-ness and my strategy of implementing a personal helper.