Engineering vs. Management (or, "The Balloon Story") · 11:24pm Aug 13th, 2022
A fellow rented a hot air balloon for the morning. He's having a wonderful time, drifting around, enjoying the beautiful scenery and the gentle spring weather, when the wind dies down, and he realizes that he's lost. He sees a guy walking across a field below, so he eases down into a hover and calls out to him.
"Excuse me?" he says. "Can you help me? I can't figure out where I am, and I'm supposed to be in town to meet some friends for lunch."
The guy on the ground thinks for a moment, then tells him, "You're presently at 34 degrees, 10 minutes, and 41 seconds North latitude by 105 degrees, 38 minutes, 18 seconds West longitude. You're currently drifting on a heading of 342 degrees, at a speed-over-ground of about one knot with the prevailing breeze, at an altitude of 10 feet above ground level. As far a lunch goes, it's now a quarter past one, and town is about eight miles due South."
The balloonist says, "You're must be an engineer. "
Guy nods. "Yep. Certified PE, Mech. E. degree from Georgia Tech. How'd you guess? "
Balloonist says, "Everything you've told me is precise, accurate, and technically correct, but I have no way to apply the information you gave me. In short, I'm no better off than I was before I ever met you, and, frankly, you've been no help at all!"
Engineer says, "And you must be in management. "
"Well, yes. MBA from Wharton, and I'm an Associate Director of Marketing for my firm. How did you know?"
"You have no idea of where you are, or where you're going. You got where you are on the basis of a lot of hot air. You've made promises you have no way of keeping, and you expect somebody else to bail you out. In short, you're in exactly the same position you were in before we ever met, except that you think it's somehow MY fault that YOU got yourself into this mess!"
(The lat/long was picked at random- I'm not anal enough to find an actual location...)
This joke was just smart enough for me!
To be fair, I'd need a aeronautical atlas/sextant to be able to figure out half of what the engineer said. Unlike the manager though, I could ask for the dumbed down version of things.