Tuesday, December 6, 2016

In which we are reminded that engineers hate scope creep

This is how the conversation went:




Me: Did you wash the basil, too?

Primo: No. Just the tomatoes.

Me: Why didn't you wash the basil?

Primo: Because you only asked me to wash the tomatoes.

Me: But the basil is for your salad. I brought in the tomatoes then went out to the garden to get the basil and then I put the basil next to the tomatoes and you didn't think to wash the basil, too?

Primo: You only asked me to wash the tomatoes!

5 comments:

  1. I'm sure you've heard the joke, which is usually told about programmers, but would apply to engineers too, I think:

    A woman asks her husband "Can you please go to the store and get me a gallon of milk? And if they have eggs, please get me a half a dozen."

    So the man comes back home with 6 gallons of milk.

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    Replies
    1. A clear understanding of if/then statements is not always a good thing.

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  2. I just had to storm upstairs to thrust this in the face of my engineer.

    ME: Do you see? Do you see how wrong he is?
    HIM: Yes, he messed up.
    ME: ... You would've only washed the tomatoes, wouldn't you?!?
    HIM: You don't know that.
    ME: Would you have washed the basil?
    HIM: ...
    ME: Well?
    HIM: You don't know that!

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  3. I love that! I tried to comment on your math/jazz post but the page kicked me out.

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  4. I'm with Primo on this one...although *if* I were not tired, I probably would have asked if you wanted me to wash the basil. (I have a 5yo and a 7mo, so I'm always tired, which means I stop looking for subtext and become very literal.)

    ReplyDelete