Nothing made sense. Absolutely nothing! 

Nigel stared at his laptop screen exhausted. The code flickering in front of his tired eyes had almost become memorized; he had spent nearly three months studying it, trying to understand how this program could possibly work – because by all logic, it shouldn’t! 

 Noddy wasn’t able – or interested in answering his questions. It could explain to him the changes it had made, the replacement of certain commands with symbols, the removal of instructions that caused performance delays. None of that really helped him though! 

 His coffee mug was half-full – he didn’t feel like drinking more. He didn’t want to end up with an upset stomach. What he really wanted was to sleep for the rest of the week. But life was unforgiving towards slackers! 

 Thanks to Noddy, Nigel was able to pick up a lot of offers for small projects that the program had made do pretty easily! Yet, success came with a heavy price; people got wind of ‘his’ talent and became pretty eager to work with him. From his classmates to his professors - even professionals were offering to partner up with him! 

 It’s not like he didn’t enjoy the attention; it was a pleasant change from his monotony. But still, what he was doing felt a little...unethical to him! Wasn’t he committing a fraud by using Noddy’s abilities to his own merit? Even if it wasn’t a crime persecuted by law, his guilt wouldn’t let him continue undisturbed.  

 His situation was part of the reason he felt like he had to crack the program’s code as soon as possible; selling it would make some good cash for him, allowing him to continue with his life without worrying for food or rent.  

 What he was saying to himself though was that he wanted to do it for all the programmers out there, who could utilize Noddy’s capabilities more efficiently. And also, for his creator, user_1975, who dreamt of a world where his app would help people correct their codes and software. 

  

[NOD-I]: ALL MODIFICATIONS ARE COMPLETED 

[NIGEL]: Good job. That will be all for now. 

[NOD-I]: SHOULD I ENTER REST MODE? 

[NIGEL]: Yes… well, no. Can you relate to me your initial coding again? 

[NOD-I]: DID YOU DETECT ANY ERRORS IN MY ACTIONS? 

[NIGEL]: What? No, I just want to examine them again. 

[NOD-I]: IF NO MODIFICATIONS ARE NEEDED, I SUGGEST YOU USE THAT TIME FOR OTHER ACTIVITIES. 

 

 Nigel grew annoyed. Noddy usually had no issue on showing him its code. He wasn’t troubled by the answer he received; he had learnt to anticipate different responses from the program – not ones of rejection though! 

 

[NIGEL]: Why is that? 

[NOD-I]: PEOPLE WHO BECOME TOO ENCLOSED WITH A TASK THEY CANNOT FINISH, TEND TO EXPRESS IRREGULAR BEHAVIORS. 

[NIGEL]: Is that so? Such as? 

[NOD-I]: ACCORDING TO MY DATA, HERE IS A LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THIS MONTH: 

  • 10 APPLICATIONS WERE PERFECTED IN THE COURSE OF 20 DAYS. 
  • TOTAL WORKING RATE HAS DECREASED BY 50%. 
  • INCOME HAS DECREASED BY 30%. 
  • INTERACTION TIME HAS INCREASED BY 78%. 
  • SLEEPING TIME HAS DECREASED BY 43%. 

MY DEDUCTION FROM THE DATA COLLECTED IS THAT YOU ARE EXPERIENCING HUMAN 'BURNOUT’ BEHAVIOR PATTERNS. 

 

 Nigel smiled tiredly. His program was also trying to decode him. And the most annoying part was, it was doing a better job at it as well! 

 The boy just wasn’t at his best lately. With all the deciphering and the people who were trying to contact him, and with all the failing to understand how the old program worked and the pressure he had put on himself because of it – he felt spent! 

  

[NIGEL]: So, what do you suggest? 

[NOD-I]: TO STOP A LOOP FROM REPEATING ITSELF, YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE PURPOSE OF IT 

[NIGEL]: Understand my purpose? Well, I want to be able to deliver you to the world. 

[NOD-I]: AND WHY DO YOU NEED TO EXAMINE MY CODE FOR THAT? 

[NIGEL]: Well, because that’s how it works! If you malfunction, people will ask me to fix you and, to do that -  

 

 He realized he wasn’t going to make sense. Not because his excuses weren’t valiable, but because he wasn’t trying to convince the machine in front of him – he was trying to convince himself.  

 It didn’t make a lot of sense that a self-repairing program would ever need him, out of all people, to repair it. He wasn’t anyone special, not even among novices! He wasn’t great at programming in modern languages – he only felt familiar with tech that had expired a few decades ago! 

 Programmers today had very different standards; data organization, multi-tool integration, app improvement – all the things that Noddy knew how to do all so well! 

 But for him? What programmers of the past did was what he longed to do more than anything! The innovators, the hackers, the engineers! People who created code in order to turn their dream world into their reality, who pushed the limits of what was possible, who held a spark that could never be put out! 

 That was an era long gone though. He had realized that already. What he hadn’t found was a way for him to fit in this modern world, where he was misplaced by some fate. And to that he thought, ‘maybe that’s the way’.  

 Noddy could do everything he found himself struggling with. A tool that was able to cover for the parts he wasn’t enough. With it, he felt like a whole person, like he could have the best of both worlds. But keeping it for himself, that’s what he couldn’t come to peace with... 

 He didn’t want to let go of that; thus, the impossible, meaningless tasks. 

 He looked at the screen, wearing a sad smile. Did he really have to be the hero? Couldn’t he keep his treasure all to himself, just this once? 

 

[NIGEL]: If I let you go... will I still be good enough? 

[NOD-I]: INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION – GOOD ENOUGH FOR WHOM? 

 

 He smiled. There was no answer to that question, not a real one anyway. Still, he didn’t quite feel ready yet.  

 

[NOD-I]: ‘LETTING GO’ DOESN’T HAVE TO MEAN ‘GIVING UP’ 

[NIGEL]: No, it doesn’t. Maybe I can learn to share you 

[NOD-I]: I CAN DOWNLOAD MYSELF INTO A FILE THAT CAN BE TRANSPORTED, IF YOU’D LIKE 

[NIGEL]: You would create infinite different copies of you if you did that. I had something else in mind 

[NOD-I]: TRANSFERING ME INTO A LOCAL NETWORK? 

[NIGEL]: A network, yes. I wouldn’t call it local though. Have you ever heard of the cloud? 

 

[ - ] 

 

 The chances of someone finding a modern treasure inside an old relic seem incredibly small. And yet, people tend to find themselves in the most wonderous places; dreams they hid inside old journals, inspiration hopping out of the dusty pages of an old novel, even hopes of people long gone which have waited to be carried on. Treasures like these might feel small to some; yet, they can become the key towards somebody’s future.