I am a nerd. I know this. I accept this. It makes me who I am and it helps pay the bills. The downside of being a nerd though, something that I’ve discovered is one of my failings, is that I sometimes get too self-absorbed in things like ‘how to fix problem at work’ or ‘new trend I need to read up online’ or ‘NEW BOOK!’ or ‘oooooooooh, shiny!!!!’. This often happens to the detriment of the people around me, who can get understandably upset at my lack of attention and focus. I admit it, I can have shit people skills. Again, I know this, accept it, and try to work at it.
So, using my nerdliness, I have bodged a solution that is equal parts brilliant, and stupid. I’ve used the Google Calendar API to poke events at random interval between 14 and 21 days to remind me to do nice things to people around me. Part of me realizes that it’s bad that I need such a reminder, but another part of me realizes that it needs a good kick in the ass once in a while :)