Odd Word, Odd Place

In programming, there’s a beautiful, odd-sounding word: idempotent.

You’re really gonna have to stick with me on this one

It means: you can do something more than once, and the result stays the same.
No damage. No error. Just quiet stability.

In shell scripting—which I use to make Git less annoying—this idea shows up in a simple flag: -p.

mkdir -p patches

Run that command, and it creates a folder called patches. But if that folder already exists? No problem. It doesn’t crash. It doesn’t overwrite. It just… keeps going.

The -p technically stands for parents, but honestly, it could stand for permission. Permission to try again. Permission to repeat an action without wrecking anything.

A Surprising Application to Psychology

Now imagine: what if a behavior in your life were idempotent?

You set a boundary. You reach out. You return to a good habit.

And instead of guilt, or system failure, or overthinking—you just get… stability.

Emotionally idempotent actions are the quiet stabilizers of a good life:

• Reaching out, even if it wasn’t perfect the first time
• Saying “no” again, after already saying it once
• Returning to a routine after drifting away—without shame

These are the psychological equivalents of mkdir -p. They say: you already made the move—you’re allowed to do it again.

Learning idempotence in code reminded me of something deeper:

Growth doesn’t always look like blazing forward. Sometimes it’s the quiet, repeated choice to try again—without fear.

And honestly?

That’s the kind of code I want to live by.