"Hello Listen, the light bulb is not working outside. Replace it now." Came the voice from my wife. I was watching highlights of a close cricket match which I had missed before. I ignored the first request (order) from my wife and continued to watch the match. "Replace it NOW". Universe just got cruel, it does not want me to watch the match peacefully. I reluctantly turn my face from the TV and look at my wife, she is staring me angrily and does not look like she has any plans to let me watch match peacefully.
I calculate to myself, the match is there for another half an hour and it will take me 5 minutes to change the light bulb especially when the new light bulb is already available in home. This means I do not have to go to shop and buy a new one. So it was a piece of cake. So I get up quickly, go outside. I see that the lightbulb to change is hanging on the roof which I cannot reach without a ladder. So I go inside the house again get the ladder and come out. My mom is talking to someone on phone sitting on the swing in the portico. I set up my ladder just behind her which she notices and points to me at something and continues to talk on the phone. I tend to ignore my mom's action, climb the ladder remove the bulb and fix the new bulb to the holder. Get down and my mom again points at something and continues to talk on phone. I again ignore and go inside the house and switch on the just fixed bulb. It lights up. Mission Accomplished.
Happy at completing the job within 4 minutes, I go back to my position and start watching the match. My wife goes out and checks and again calls me that bulb is not working. I think she must've checked the wrong one and continue to watch my match. She again comes to me and pulls me out again and shows me that the bulb. I am dumbstruck staring at the bulb which is not working and which is completely different from the one I replaced. It is the other bulb which is just at the reachable height in the portico and does not need the ladder. My wife started again - "Oh God, I told you to change that bulb and you have changed this one!!!", I retort back - "Well, you did not tell which bulb specifically!! Hence I assumed to be this bulb". Wife - "Ayyo... Rama".
I calculate to myself, the match is there for another half an hour and it will take me 5 minutes to change the light bulb especially when the new light bulb is already available in home. This means I do not have to go to shop and buy a new one. So it was a piece of cake. So I get up quickly, go outside. I see that the lightbulb to change is hanging on the roof which I cannot reach without a ladder. So I go inside the house again get the ladder and come out. My mom is talking to someone on phone sitting on the swing in the portico. I set up my ladder just behind her which she notices and points to me at something and continues to talk on the phone. I tend to ignore my mom's action, climb the ladder remove the bulb and fix the new bulb to the holder. Get down and my mom again points at something and continues to talk on phone. I again ignore and go inside the house and switch on the just fixed bulb. It lights up. Mission Accomplished.
Happy at completing the job within 4 minutes, I go back to my position and start watching the match. My wife goes out and checks and again calls me that bulb is not working. I think she must've checked the wrong one and continue to watch my match. She again comes to me and pulls me out again and shows me that the bulb. I am dumbstruck staring at the bulb which is not working and which is completely different from the one I replaced. It is the other bulb which is just at the reachable height in the portico and does not need the ladder. My wife started again - "Oh God, I told you to change that bulb and you have changed this one!!!", I retort back - "Well, you did not tell which bulb specifically!! Hence I assumed to be this bulb". Wife - "Ayyo... Rama".
The complete scene just dawns on me that I just replaced the bulb which was already in the working condition. The whole 4 mins which I was proud of was now looking like a time-pass. Now I also realise that my mom was pointing to the bulb which was not working and I ignored. I just Feeling so stupid, I just replaced that non-working bulb with the previous one which I had removed from the roof. An extra 10mins wasted and my match over as well.
One more lesson for software engineers to properly understand requirements before jumping into the implementation.
One more lesson for software engineers to properly understand requirements before jumping into the implementation.
--The End--
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4 comments:
Good one...:)
How many software engineers does it take to change a light bulb - Infinity. They always end up changing the wrong bulb.
@Swathi - Thanks,
@Bharath - I had exactly the same line as my title, but thought it would be tooo long... hence shortened ;)
Hillarious !!!
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