macro /măk′rō″/

a series of recorded actions saved by a program to repeat later

So many macros every day. Just packaged responses and actions all… day… long. Partly because we’re on autopilot, partly in a rush. More than slightly distracted. The mundane is like that operating system virus that avoids detection by hiding in native processes.

Luckily, the grind open sources our ‘series of recorded actions’, everybody has access. Given known inputs, outputs are predictable, finite.

“The mundane is like that operating system virus that avoids detection by hiding in native processes.”

We don’t remember when we downloaded it, but we implicitly acknowledge when to use a conversational macro in the wild. A packet is sent to us (‘Good morning’), we acknowledge (‘Hey, good morning’), and we proceed with generic banter initiating the remainder of the macro (‘How are you?’). This protocol allows us an easy path through and to the end of an interaction.

Start
Good morning -> Good morning, how are you?
I'm good, how was your weekend? -> Good, yours?
Good.
Awesome, well have a good day! -> You too!
End.

Maybe the nature of a routine lends itself to macro like behavior, and avoids allocating memory for novel engagements. There isn’t enough RAM in our zombied out march through a weekday for creative connections. That might make us late to our next macro.

It’s an automation we have been running for so long that nobody has checked the code for design flaws, or even to ask why this process runs on a loop across so many of our engagements the way it does.

Or, and we can’t rule this out, maybe… Maybe we just don’t give a shit and canned responses are offered to avoid being rude. Regardless, it’s boring as hell. Just like this post.

-say2rue