The Power of Intermittent Reinforcement

Psychologists tell us that intermittent reinforcement is the strongest of all types. Indeed, it keeps the casinos in Las Vegas thriving. It keeps the convenience store in Malad, Idaho, just over the Utah/Idaho state line, in business, with Utahns eager to buy lottery tickets, which cannot be purchased in Utah. But since I don't gamble or buy lottery tickets, I never fully understood the power of intermittent reinforcement. Until now.

You see, I own this "possessed" computer. It turns on when it wants to. When it doesn't want to, sucks for me. It doesn't matter if I have a set of grades to enter, or an email to write to my missionary, or my bank account to balance, or a blog post to upload, or some simple Facebook time to waste; if the thing doesn't want to turn on, it won't. And just how long will it be before it comes on again? Who knows? It might be a couple minutes. It might be a couple hours. It might be a couple days. But always, at some point, it comes back on. Yep, intermittent reinforcement, aka "hope."

Intermittent reinforcement provides hope. It worked before. It will work again. I just need to keep trying. I won before. I will win again. I just need to keep playing. I totally get it now. Twice in the past few months, Gerald has texted me, "It's totally dead now. Forever. Seriously." But both times it has mysteriously resurrected, and yes, it is the very computer I am typing on right this second.

This is SO frustrating. I need a computer that works, not some of the time, not most of the time, but all of the time. And were it not for intermittent reinforcement, that is if I didn't know it would eventually come back on, I would have replaced it months ago. Earlier today, I nearly tossed it out the window with the sentiment "WOULD YOU JUST DIE ALREADY?!"

So Saturday, Gerald and I went to Best Buy to look at alternatives. I'm drawn to the new tablets that convert to laptops. Way cool! We looked at the Microsoft Surface Pro, but Gerald also thought I should check out the Asus Transformer T-100, which is brand new. Best Buy had received stock but had not yet set up a display, so I have to wait a couple days to try it.

It's okay. Because for right now, my computer is working. Until it decides not to.

Intermittent Reinforcement - clearly the strongest of all types.