A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height, spots a man down below, and asks, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised to return the balloon to its owner, but I don’t know where I am.”
The man below says: “You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 350 feet above mean sea level and 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees’ north latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees’ west longitude.”
“You must be an engineer,” says the balloonist. “I am,” replies the man. “How did you know?” “Well,” says the balloonist, “everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost.”
The man below says, “You must be a manager.” “I am,” replies the balloonist, “but how did you know?” “Well,” says the engineer, “you don’t know where you are, or where you are going. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met, but now it is somehow my fault.”
— Anonymous
This is one of those apocryphal witticisms that comes with the engineer’s design territory. It’s funny the first time you hear it as a junior engineers, it becomes less funny as you live it as a senior engineer. However, I find it is regaining its mirth when you can see the end in sight as the curmudgeonly engineer, and recognized that this is a dance that is continually repeated, and accept that every generation has to learn at the alter of personal experience and that most will abide by no other.
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