“I’ve got it all memorized, the red and the blue, and how the states change, and I have my states that I’m watching all the time,” she said. The constant checking has cemented a cruel kind of operant conditioning, wherein she experiences anxiety about the state of the race, and the checking calms her down. This reinforces the habit, so that when she grows anxious again a few minutes later, she has to check again. With each minute that ticks by since she last checked, she worries more.Tick. . .

“Right now, I’m not able to check because I’m talking to you,” O’Brien noted. “I’m going crazy.”

Tock. . .

“I’m kidding,” she added. “Sort of.”