Ive been developing an SMS component recently, and I have a consistent disturbing reaction that I’ll admit here.

I wrote a commandline test program and have been using it repeatedly to send test messages to my phone. Here’s a typical testing loop:

[Type command]

[Hit enter]

5 seconds pass….

Phone beeps

My Brain: “Oooh! Someone just sent me an SMS!”

[Look at phone - see test message]

My Brain: “DAMNIT! I’m an idiot.”

I do this time after time and somehow my brain decouples my deliberate test with getting a legitimate SMS. Sometimes I make it to “Ooh! Someone just…. DAMNIT!” and even sometimes to “Oooh! DAMNIT!”. But there’s always this little surprise.

One time my wife got in an SMS between hitting enter and getting the test SMS. That didn’t help the situation at all.