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121 points b-man | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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xlii ◴[] No.44026665[source]
I have a joke in context that I often like to tell:

Devil captured Physicist, Engineer and Mathematician. He gave each of them big can of spam and locked them in the empty room saying „you will be here for 2 weeks - open the can and survive or die to starvation”. After 2 weeks Devil opens Physicist cell. It’s covered floor to the ceiling in complex scribbles. One piece of wall is clean of etching but small dent is visible. Can of span is opened and eaten clean, Physicist sits in corner visibly annoyed. Next one is Engineer. Cell walls are covered in multiple dents and pieces of spam. Engineer is bruised almost as much as the can, but it is ultimately opened and engineer is alive.

Finally the Devil opens Mathematician cell and find him dead. Only „given the cylinder” is etched on the wall.

—-

Puent isn’t about engineering but it always helped me to set limits between software engineering and computer science.

replies(1): >>44034483 #
1. Terr_ ◴[] No.44034483[source]
Uh... I don't get it. Perhaps something was lost in translation?

It sounds like you're saying each person had to smash a container against the wall to release the food, and the Mathematician got side-tracked analyzing the container.

However:

1. Spam™ cans have a convenient pull-tab, you don't need to bash them against a wall.

2. Spam™ cans are typically not "cylinder" shaped... Unless the Mathematician was expecting a cylinder and didn't recieve one, but in that case what did the Devil say that would have caused that expectation?

3. Why would the Engineer do worse at opening the can compared to the Physicist?

replies(1): >>44059395 #
2. xlii ◴[] No.44059395[source]
It could be. Spam is translation for any kind of minced meat, there’s no implication about way of opening, shaper or brand. The one that was given out was (from scribble) without tab and cylindrical in shape.

And since you decided to query I’ll share another (more local) joke. In Poland you can buy spam called „Konserwa Turystyczna” (which translates to tourist can roughly). And the running joke about it is that you can (psst) buy one while NOT being a tourist. Nobody checks that!

As for the 3rd. Nobody said it was worse, that’s the point. I like the joke because it highlights it. The goal wasn’t to do it perfectly. It was to survive. Engineer succeeded in a way that solved the given problem.

And in IT we have a saying that premature optimization is a root of all evil. Doesn’t that sound aligning? :)