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[DPRG] Robots in Gumby's World
Subject: [DPRG] Robots in Gumby's World
From: Chris Jang
cjang at ix.netcom.com
Date: Sat Aug 18 13:42:54 CDT 2007
>Art Clokey was a genius.
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nBswSsH28M
This is awesome, not quite on the level of "Monkey versus Robot" but close.
I think it is great not only because it is so funny. There is great truth
in what seems only a children's claymation. First there was Pokey's idea
to have a robot mow the lawn. Then Gumby went overboard and deployed five
robots without any testing, risk mitigation strategy, or production support.
It was a classic overly optimistic waterfall project plan that assumes
everything will work perfectly and any problems will be minor. In real life,
just as in the claymation, often this kind of plan leads to big problems.
Gumby's mom should have asked a few more questions - "Gumby, what if the
robots go crazy? Do you have a plan of action for this?" But this is also
a reflection of reality. People come up with some very ambitious plans and
because we are unable to understand them or lack time (Gumby's mom was busy
in the kitchen), there is effectively no functional review process.
Ultimately, Gumby should have been watching the robots. He had five robots
working full-time. He could afford to monitor them instead of going to play
as his productivity with the automation of the robots would be five times
normal. That means he could get five times as much work done, finish his
day early, and then go play with Pokey after turning the robots off. But he
would still have to work for at least a while.
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