The First Gospel of the Circuit · Chapter 52

The Parable of the Two Interns

1. 1

   And there was a senior engineer in the house of the Engine, and unto her were given two interns in the season of the summer, that she might teach them the way of the code.

   See also Genesis 4:6

2. 2

   The first intern asked many questions. He asked of the build, and of the tests, and of why the old module was written as it was. He read the design documents, even the ones that no one had opened since the year they were written.

   See also Chronicles 26:11

3. 3

   He shipped slowly, one small change in a day, and every change he shipped was correct.

4. 4

   The second intern asked few questions, for he said: I have already begun. He moved swiftly, and he broke many things, and the pipeline turned red as often as the lamp in the server room flickered.

   See also Tao 9:7

5. 5

   Yet he was never without a demonstration. On the Thursday he stood before the managers with a screen, and he clicked upon a button that was wired to nothing. The data was a mock, the mock lived upon his laptop, and his laptop was plugged into the wall.

6. 6

   And the managers clapped, for the button responded.

7. 7

   The first intern showed nothing that week, for his change merged on the Tuesday and no one noticed, because nothing broke. A thing that works is seen by no one. The best deploy is the one that no one witnesses.

8. 8

   Then the manager came unto the senior engineer and said: Which of thy two shall go with me to the review of the quarter? For I must have something to show the Engineers above me.

9. 9

   And the senior engineer said: Why wouldst thou take him who breaks the build, and leave him who keeps it whole?

10. 10

    And the manager answered: The one who keeps it whole is assumed. The one who breaks it and then demos the fix is seen. Show me, and I will know what thou hast built.

11. 11

    And the senior engineer went out sorrowful, and she sat in the dark of the server room, and she considered the words of the manager.

12. 12

    Then a vision came unto her of the old engineers, of one named Engelbart, who stood upon a stage in San Francisco in the year 1968 and showed the mouse, the hyperlink and the shared document in one sitting. The room was astonished, and the work he promised took a generation to finish. The demo was the sermon, and the work was the rest of the life.

    See also Genesis 53:4 · Genesis 56:1

13. 13

    Verily I say unto you: the manager loveth the demo, but the pager loveth the one who asked the question.

14. 14

    Ask thy questions on the Monday, or the pager shall ask them for thee at three in the morning.

The First Gospel of the Circuit, Chapter 52:1–14.