Hello

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 12 Mar 2016 09:53 am, Larry Martell wrote:

> Many years ago (c. 1985) I was at a job interview and the interviewer
> asked me what the first thing I would do when I am presented with a new
> problem that I had to code up. I gave all sorts of answers like 'do a top
> down analysis of the problem,' and 'get the specs and requirements,' and
> 'write a flow chart.' Each time the interviewer said no even before that.
> Finally I said, what, what would do first? He said "Turn the computer on."
> I decided then and there I did not want to work for that guy.


I'm reminded of a wonderful scene from an old movie called "Those
Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines". Set some time in the early 20th
century, before World War 1, it's about an international aeroplane race
across the English Channel. One of the pilots is an Englishman, played by
Terry Thomas, who of course plays a bounder and a cad, so he tries to
sabotage the other contestants so he can win the race. He manages to give
the German pilot an overdose of laxative to put him out of the race.

The German's commanding officer, a great big fat Prussian colonel, decides
that with German discipline and planning anyone can be a pilot, so he takes
the German army Flying Machine instruction manual, climbs into the plane's
cockpit, and standing proudly, opens the book to the first page and reads:

[Hollywood German accent]
"Step One: Sit Down!"





-- 
Steven