[813] in Humor
HUMOR: Three Approaches
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Tue Apr 11 08:53:55 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 08:49:13 EDT
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 1995 11:19:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: Steve Berczuk <berczuk@space.mit.edu>
From: Harold Boll <boll@keps.com>
Date: 4/9/95 1626
From: Steven McLafferty
Forwarded message:
>
>
> A Software Engineer, a Hardware Engineer and a Departmental Manager
> were on their way to a meeting in Switzerland. They were driving down
> a steep mountain road when suddenly the brakes on their car failed.
> The car careened almost out of control down the road, bouncing off the
> crash barriers, until it miraculously ground to a halt, scraping along
> the mountainside. The car's occupants, shaken but unhurt, now had a
> problem: they were stuck halfway down a mountain in a car with no
> brakes. What were they to do?
>
> "I know", said the Departmental Manager, "Let's have a meeting, propose
> a Vision, formulate a Mission Statement, define some Goals, and by a
> process of Continuous Improvement find a solution to the Critical
> Problems, and we can be on our way."
>
> "No, no", said the Hardware Engineer, "That will take far too long, and
> besides, that method has never worked before. I've got my Swiss Army
> knife with me, and in no time at all I can strip down the car's braking
> system, isolate the fault, fix it, and we can be on our way."
>
> "Well", said the Software Engineer, "Before we do anything, I think we
> should push the car back up the road and see if it happens again."
