Engineering slogans

[Ryan Foley]

I saw this in a post on another forum
when building a robot:
"cheap fast or good, pick 2"

"Better is the enemy of good enough" (it it works fine, dont try to make it better)

"90% of the work is done by 10% of the team"
-Alan Troshan, team 522 machinist

"It aint broke, it just lacks duct tape"
-Jim and Tim, Duct Tape Pros

From Timberlane Team meetings:
"That PVC goal pip is NOT a lightsaber"

"No you are NOT a jedi"

"It aint broke, it just lacks duct tape"
-Jim and Tim, Duct Tape Pros

[mpking]

Originally posted by kmcclary

It's more than slightly embarrassing to be staring at your own design two years later trying to get to where your own head was at 3 AM that fateful "night before deadline" when you, cranked up on caffeine and desperately trying to get the darn thing out the door had some epiphany of insight. You can even remember thinking "Oh heck, this is really cool, non-obvious, it works, and (fateful last words) I'll just get around to documenting it sometime next week when I have "more time"... - Keith

Been there....... Done that.......
Trust me. You don't want to be in that situation.

And it hasn't happen to me, but I have witnessed the "Your too vital at what you do" to be promoted fallout.

How about we amend it to:

"Comment just because you don't want to be the guy working on the code. You want to be the guy developing new exciting projects, not changing exisiting code.

[Dan 550]

No, You CAN NOT HOLD THE STICK BACKWARDS! It won't work right. I don't care what you think feels good. You'll forget which way is forward, let alone left and right! The program isn't going to be completely redone just because you think that way feels good. They're ergonomically designed, for crying out loud! Are your hands on backwards? NO! Then don't hold the stick backwards. And wear your glasses, we can't afford another bit like when Dave neglected to tell us that he was blind.

-Conversation between me and Jay, our driver for the day, as to why I wasn't going to have Steve, our programmer, program the robot again with "reverse left-right one stick aircraft-style drive" just so Jay could feel better.

[kmcclary]

Originally posted by mpking
How about we amend it to:

"Comment just because you don't want to be the guy working on the code. You want to be the guy developing new exciting projects, not changing existing code.

You've got it exactly!

I know I don't want to be the one forced to hang around in "maintenance mode" when a new project challenge shows up at the office and it's up for grabs.

My secret: I comment the heck out of everything I do just so any junior member can take charge of it, freeing me for better things. The ones that "program for job security" are the ones that end up never getting a promotion. but hey, they got what they wanted!

My quote:

"Anyone that programs for job security may suddenly find they got their wish... at the expense of advancement..."

- Keith

[Mark Pierce]

Originally posted by Melancholy
Not quite engineering, and not quite a slogan, but my Computer Science teacher said this on the first day of class.

"The purpose of commenting is that if you get fired, or hit by a bus, someone else can finish your program!"

I can really appreciate the comments on this by Kieth and Mike.

As a software engineer for over 20 years, I think I'm safe in saying that this is an engineering slogan. Variations on this slogan have been around since the early days of computing. I suspect that even Charles Babbage, and certainly those working with him or studying his work, uttered similar words. The refinements presented here are great!

[chellyzee93]

I didn't make it do THAT! D:

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by Mark Pierce

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Melancholy
Not quite engineering, and not quite a slogan, but my Computer Science teacher said this on the first day of class.

"The purpose of commenting is that if you get fired, or hit by a bus, someone else can finish your program!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I can really appreciate the comments on this by Kieth and Mike.

As a software engineer for over 20 years, I think I'm safe in saying that this is an engineering slogan. Variations on this slogan have been around since the early days of computing. I suspect that even Charles Babbage, and certainly those working with him or studying his work, uttered similar words. The refinements presented here are great!

And don't believe the old myth that you can ensure your job security by making your code as unintelligible as possible (by not commenting, etc.)

[EStokely]

Among the favorites that we used in the build cycle

"If it was easy, I would have done it" (Usually used when directing a student towards a project that has no clear answer yet)

"Its OK, if you mess it up you just get to do it again"

"We'll fix that in programming"

"Sissor lifts suck"

And from my first year in this..

"why did they give us all these bearings?"



Hope everyone is raising enough money.
later

[kmcclary]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot... Last year, people kept suggesting adding more motors, actuators, or complex mechanisms simply to make things go down. I kept chanting this over and over in response until the students finally started finishing the phrase with me:

"Remember: Gravity is your friend... USE it.."



- Keith

[RBrandy]

We didnt break it... We modified it.

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally posted by RBrandy
We didnt break it... We modified it.

Haha, that and:

"It's not a flaw ... it's a design feature!"

- Katie

[EricS-Team180]

...Never time to do it right, but always time to do it over ...

[dk5sm5luigi]

Here are a couple of quotes that my old team used to use back in 1997 when we had an Engineer (who helped us on his free time and was our only engineer) was on the team. He had these quotes:

"It is better to look Good than to be Good"
and
"It came to me in a stroke of mediocrity"
-Grant McStay

The team slogan also became "It's all Grant's fault" but that was mostly a team joke.

[chellyzee93]

It doesn't matter, we'll work that out later

[Tyler Olds]

"If it aint broke, don't fix it" and just to add a yupper (sp) touch, you cna always end the sentence with an "eh?"