Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Details Matter... 'Thaw the Chicken'

Sometimes you have the big picture, you have the equipment, you know what you're trying to accomplish, and you know how to technically get a task done - but something is missing... some tiny seemingly insignificant piece of information thwarts you in your attempt to accomplish an aim. Details really do matter!  Enjoy this funny story and think about whether there are details that may be holding you back or making a mess of your attempts to reach a goal.

Back in the mid-1990's scientists at NASA developed a gun for the purpose of launching dead chickens. Why, you might ask?  By hurling a chicken at the windshield of a jet or the space shuttle at that vehicle's maximum traveling velocity, the space agency could simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with birds, and therefore determine if the windshields were strong enough to withstand high-speed airborne fowl strikes.

British engineers, upon hearing of the gun, were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high-speed trains. However, upon firing the gun, the engineers watched in horror as the chicken corpse shattered the windshield, smashed the control console, broke the engineer's backrest, and embedded itself in the cabin wall.

Shocked and puzzled, the engineers sent NASA the results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield, and begged the US scientists for suggestions and assistance in getting their obviously sub-standard windshields up to snuff.

NASA sent back a brief response: "Thaw the chicken."

Do you have 'unthawed chickens' in your world right now?  Little details that are mucking up the waters and shattering your experiments?  Minor points of logic that you may be missing?

Think about it.

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