April 12, 2006

Curious, George: Tell us a story I'm asking on behalf of #2, who has been looking for something similar to (but not) this story, the Parable of the Object-Oriented Toaster.

It's a piece of humour told from the point of a mechanical engineer. He and his manager are asked to design the next model toaster and they do in time and under budget. The rest of the story is about how things downhill when a software guy gets involved and the features and schedule blow out up to having to fit heatsinks to cool the dual CPUs due to all of the fancyness involved. It ends with the manager turning to drink and the mechanical guy leaving the software guy to his own devices.

posted by tracicle 18 years ago
  • this one?
    To Market, To Market (Building a Better Toaster) Day 1 My boss, an engineer from the pre-CAD days, has successfully brought a generation of products from Acme Toaster Corp's engineering labs to market. Bob is a wonder of mechanical ingenuity. All of us in the design department have the utmost respect for him, so I was honored when he appointed me the lead designer on the new Acme 2000 Toaster.
     another variation.
  • Not sure which exact quality you're looking for, but there are several similar stories archived in The Jargon File, including The Story of Mel and A Story About Magic. Others can be found nestled within the glossary itself. My favorite concerns the story behind the saying, "Always mount a scratch monkey." Then of course there's the one with an engineer, a manager, and a hot air balloon.
  • I, of course, would love to hear personal stories of a similar vein--bring 'em on, Monkeys!
  • roryk, your first link was close enough to be good. I've sent it to him at work.
  • the Parable of the Object-Oriented Toaster: its tarrible