Engineering - A Seemingly Reasonable Idea

October 24th 1901  Annie Taylor was the first person to conquer the falls in a barrel. After climbing inside her airtight wooden barrel, the air pressure was compressed to 30 p.s.i. with a bicycle pump. After the experience Annie described how it helped to go down 10 meters, turn, go back up, then down, flip, then stop midair, think about it and realize she forgot her barrel, then she went to the top, got in the barrel, and then went down again, stopping periodically to check and see if everything was alright. "...she would fall straight down at the same velocity." Absurd?  Well, then why is there a thing called "Agile-Waterfall Methodology" (AWM)?  Isn't it just as absurd?  In reality, if Annie attempted the above, she would have been trying to talk, stop, go up, but in the end she would fall straight down at the same velocity. "Ever feel like these meetings produce zero action?" Well, in AWM we do the same thing.  We a

Submitted by "Anonymous Coward" So, it is time for my annual performance review.  After walking for 10 mins to find an open conference room, we finally get a room with a wall of windows.  We sit down.  My boss starts the meeting noticing an Indian employee picking his nose and he points it out to me.  Then, he says, "I hate Indians..." I think I gave him the same look Jim from The Office gives frequently... Noticing my discomfort he says, "Oh, I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have said that.  That could get me fired." Now, what am I supposed to say?  This is the same guy who has been rumored to have been fired once for punching a delivery guy.  There are no witnesses and we are in a meeting deciding my bonus.  This is an offense committed with impunity.  I did however realize that I must have gained incredible trust with this racist in order for him to just freely vent like this.  Yay? 😒 The rest of the meeting is basically me B.S.'ing

Submitted by "Anonymous Coward" New people in meetings small talk before the meeting starts.  They have not been broken yet.... Do you ever have an out-of-body experience in the middle of a meeting and realize you work with at least one Michael Scott ?  I do.  From here on out, I'm going to refer to my boss as Michael. Yes meetings can be fun and even productive.  That is to say, right before Michael enters the room.  One meeting my colleague asked me to do him a favor to which I replied, "Yeah, sure... for five dollars."  A pithy little joke, maybe not even worth the time it took to utter, but displayed our rapport. Of course another person said, "you should have asked for Euros" and another, "No, Bitcoin !"  We chuckled.  Now the joke has reached the end.  In fact I believe it has gone just past exhaustion. "Michael enters..." Michael enters the meeting and decides he must hear this conversation explained in full detail

Submitted by "Anonymous Coward" Decades ago, my father worked for a large IT company .  During this time a sole engineer was responsible for inventing a device that made them  countless millions of dollars. One day, as my father recounts, they held a large company meeting with all the staff where this engineer was located.  They honored him for his ingenuity in front of hundreds of people, and gave him a check for... "$1,000!  Oh, my!  What a life changer!" If I were that engineer I would have immediately held a meeting with my boss and said add a couple zeros or give me a 50% raise or I quit immediately.  Inevitably, I wouldn't get anything but the opportunity to start yelling at my manager and be thrown out. Office Space You may be thinking, "well, this is unwise."  Perhaps, but maybe my approach minus the yelling is something we as engineers need to start testing the boundaries of; especially software engineers of today.  I have worke