Um...Amen!?<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I have, in the past several years, sort of moved from a Myers-Briggs ENFP, which likes to start things but gets bored and does not finish, to an ENFJ, which says "let's make a decision and do it!"</div>
<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>So my question is, what is the problem that you think should be worked on that prompted you to send this? Or, rather, what are the unfinished machines you refer to?</div>
<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Thanks...they will like this at work (Six Sigma...process improvement...focus on a well defined problem...scope creep...etc...)</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
</div><div>Rob<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 4:09 PM, Marcus Denker <<a href="mailto:denker@iam.unibe.ch">denker@iam.unibe.ch</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<br>
"One of the sad memories of my life is a visit to the celebrated<br>
mathematician and inventor, Mr Babbage. He was far advanced in age,<br>
but his mind was still as vigorous as ever. He took me through his<br>
work-rooms. In the first room I saw parts of the original Calculating<br>
Machine, which had been shown in an incomplete state many years before<br>
and had even been put to some use. I asked him about its present form.<br>
'I have not finished it because in working at it I came on the idea of<br>
my Analytical Machine, which would do all that it was capable of doing<br>
and much more. Indeed, the idea was so much simpler that it would have<br>
taken more work to complete the Calculating Machine than to design and<br>
construct the other in its entirety, so I turned my attention to the<br>
Analytical Machine.'"<br>
<br>
"After a few minutes' talk, we went into the next work-room, where he<br>
showed and explained to me the working of the elements of the<br>
Analytical Machine. I asked if I could see it. 'I have never completed<br>
it,' he said, 'because I hit upon an idea of doing the same thing by a<br>
different and far more effective method, and this rendered it useless<br>
to proceed on the old lines.' Then we went into the third room. There<br>
lay scattered bits of mechanism, but I saw no trace of any working<br>
machine. Very cautiously I approached the subject, and received the<br>
dreaded answer, 'It is not constructed yet, but I am working on it,<br>
and it will take less time to construct it altogether than it would<br>
have token to complete the Analytical Machine from the stage in which<br>
I left it.' I took leave of the old man with a heavy heart."<br>
<br>
-- Lord Moulton<br>
<font color="#888888">--<br>
Marcus Denker -- <a href="mailto:denker@iam.unibe.ch">denker@iam.unibe.ch</a><br>
<a href="http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~denker" target="_blank">http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~denker</a><br>
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</font></blockquote></div><br></div>