The Art of Fire & Forget
No… it’s not arsony.
“Burn the past. Turn the page. Move on.”
In this piece, I’m not gonna talk about how you burn things after you break up with your ex. It’s also not about setting a random fire, and pretending that you’re not the cause, that’s criminal. For those of you who google it… no, it’s not about a certain type of missile. I’m talking about the concept of fire & forget which exists in computer engineering.
Fire & Forget (FF) is a concept of interaction patterns in computer science. It’s a form of communication where the requester doesn’t wait for any response from the receiving end¹. Picture this… you want to post an announcement to your classmates. You open your Whatsapp group, write it down, and hit send.
You don’t expect everybody in your class to reply to your message. If anyone read it, then it’s good. If there’s anyone who misses it, you pretty much don’t care. All you need to know is that you did your job.
This is basically what FF is all about. It lives up to its name: you fire away, then forget it — you don’t give a shit anymore. So why am I talking about FF now? It began almost 2 years ago when coming to the office is still a thing.
Book Depository (no… I’m not endorsed)
One day, I want to purchase a book from Book Depository. Given all the books are imported outside of the country, I understand that the delivery might take a long time. It stated on the website itself that it might take 20–30 business days based on where I’m from. I’ve waited for almost 2 months, but the book still hasn’t arrived.
Later on, I found out that one of my colleagues is also a book depository user. I ask ’em whether it would take this long time for the users to wait. The answer I got at that time: “Yeah, actually that’s common for book depository. Even tho it stated that the book will arrive in 20–30 business days, there’s no guarantee. It depends on how the supplier searches the book and other x-factors. “Chill bro… the book will eventually come. It’s a fire & forget, you don’t have to think about it too much”. That was the time I started to think that FF might be an interesting concept to be applied to our daily lives.
Overthinking Things
Sometimes we’re overthinking things. When you purchased goods online, sometimes you hastily wait for them to arrive at your doorsteps. When you post a picture on your Instagram, you worried about what other people would think. You’re wondering how your niece and nephew would judge you regarding how much money you put inside the festivity envelope.
It’s unhealthy in my opinion, and it only eats you up from the insides.
When you shop online, don’t question when will it arrive. It will arrive just fine, so sit your as* down people. When you post a picture on your social media, don’t bother about what others might think. They don’t know what your intentions are, so why bother thinking about theirs? Your niece and nephew would judge that you’re cheap? So what? You can’t hear them anyway.
Just do it, then forget it. Don’t overthink things!
I’m not saying that we have to be selfish and don’t care about others’ feelings. I’m also not saying that we have to act like a daredevil and do whatever we want without thinking about it first (believe me, you’ll be dead quick).
I guess what I want to say is… sometimes… we have to have an attitude of not giving a f*ck like Mark Manson said.
Hope this story makes you overthink to stop overthinking things. Thank you for reading 😃
Cheers 🍻 — Ferzos
