Garbage In, Garbage Out…How a Programming Term Applies to Everyday Life

Posted on November 3, 2008 by LJ

Mondays are productivity days at SimpleProductivity blog.

GIGO

Photo by realname In programming, we have a term: GIGO. It stands for Garbage In, Garbage Out. It is particularly apt in my professional field because too often clients expect us to take mangled data and buff it into usable format, without any guidance or structure. GIGO.

GIGO and Productivity

It seems to me that GIGO also applies to productivity, particularly in two areas: information and our bodies.

GIGO and Information Intake

There is a lot of information available on the web these days. If you can search for it, you will be rewarded by hundreds of links about your object. The problem is that not all of these links contain equally worth-while material. Anyone can write material for the web (case and point!) People require garbage filters to handle this plethora of information: clearing away obvious fallacies and logic errors, and cross-checking information are two that pop into mind. Without these filters, lots of garbage goes in.

And guess what? The more garbage information you take in, without validating it, pollutes your mind. It can cloud your outlook and actions. Garbage in, garbage out.

The only way to get around this is to develop critical thinking skills. Weed out the garbage before it gets in, and your output will be of much better quality.

GIGO and Food Intake

This is one that I have been aware of for some time, but it has come back to me. With Halloween approaching as I write this, there is a lot of candy in my house. And I am not one to turn down candy. But what I notice is that with every piece of candy I eat, my body gets sluggish and I feel poor. When I switch and eat fresh fruits and veggies, lots of water, whole grains, I feel much better.

Garbage in, garbage out.

The only way to get around this is to pay attention to what I put in. If I want to be on top of my game, I can’t be eating junk all the time.

Are there any other places in your lives that GIGO applies? Please comment.

Photo by realname

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