I hate spiders. They are the incarnation of all things evil in a tiny but deadly shell. So you can understand why a wooden outdoor shower at a beach house (the preferred living spot of evil arachnids with many angles perfect for webs) terrified me. But I was too sandy to not shower, which left me with no choice but to use the spidery shower. Because even at 21 I am still a child, I asked my dad if he saw any spiders in the shower, and he said that since he didn’t look for spiders, he didn’t find any.

What? Just because you don’t look for something doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Right?

The whole argument “If a tree falls in a forest and nobody's there to hear it does it make a sound?” has never sat well with me. Obviously the tree makes a sound. Science or something proves it. But as I had no way to get out of this showering thing I tried to shower and just “not look for spiders.” I did not find a single spider. I gave no more thought to this issue.

Until, in a recent Silicon Valley episode, when the characters talk about Schrodinger’s Cat, did I reconsider the issue.

Schrodinger's Cat is a thought experiment that apparently uses everyday objects to illustrate the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. Wait, don’t leave yet I know that was physics word vomit, I promise it will get interesting real soon. For those of us who never had to take college physics, congratulations and allow me to explain Schrodinger’s Cat. The premise of this thought experiment, is that a cat is enclosed in a box with a radioactive source and a poison. The radioactive source will randomly emit radiation that will release the poison and kill the cat. Grim, I know. The idea is that when the box lid is closed the cat is simultaneously dead and alive. But when you open the box you will find the cat either dead or alive, meaning that by opening the box you have either killed or saved the cat.

In the episode, the theory was applied for incoming text messages as some of the characters were waiting for news as to whether their company was going to be sold or not. If Dinesh didn’t open the text message the message simultaneously said the company would survive and the company was bought, but if Dinesh opened the message then he would have caused the outcome. At first it took a second for me to grasp the concept, but as I thought about it I realized I apply this principle in my life all the time.

For example, take that recent test grade posted on blackboard. If I don’t check it- there’s a chance it’s a great grade. But as soon as I check it, the chance it’s a great grade is gone and I know exactly what I have. Schrodinger’s Cat is everywhere in our technological lives! That Facebook message from that guy you met this weekend? If you don’t read it, it is simultaneously him asking you out and him rejecting you! If you read it, you might kill the chance of a date. That email from the company you just interviewed with? It is both an offer and standard form rejection email. Do not open the box and kill the cat! Is Schrodinger’s Cat the reason for the extreme procrastination us Snake People enjoy so much? If we don’t start an assignment it is both very easy and very hard.

Schrodinger's Cat opens up an esoteric way of thinking about things. Yes, we all are rational human beings and know that opening an email does not actually change the contents. But opening said email does destroy the hope that the email could be an offer, because you will now know exactly what the email contains. Maybe your life is perfect, so you’ve never had that crash of spirits when your blackboard page finally loads and that test you thought you aced, you really bombed, and so this theory really doesn’t apply to you at all. Or maybe you are a “yank the bandaid off and unintentionally wax off some arm hair” type of person and you have never once seen a text from someone but refused to open it for a while for fear that the news might be bad, and again this theory seems ridiculous to you. But for the slightly socially awkward or hopeful optimistic people out there, this quantum mechanics theory might pop up in your daily life more often than you ever thought quantum mechanics would.

Going forward I’m not sure knowing the thought experiment behind my procrastination will make me any less likely to procrastinate, but it has helped explain why it is you sometimes put off listening to that one voicemail from your mother for so long.

TL;DR