After their death three IT persons arrived in hell. Among them a senior manager, a consultant and a software architect. One of the devils was in charge of taking care of these unfortunates. However, hell population has the same kind of feelings towards IT experts like the rest of mankind. Thus, the devil offered a deal to the newcomers. “There is a chimpanzee around this corner. Each of you you will need to make the chimpanzee first laugh, then cry, and finally make him return back to his cage. If you succeed, we’ll send you back to earth.”
First the senior manager approached the chimpanzee. No matter what he said or did, the monkey showed absolutely no reaction.
Then the consultant tried his luck. After an hour he also gave up.
Finally, it was the turn of the software architect. After a few seconds the chimpanzee started screaming with laughter. After some more seconds he was moved to tears. And as soon as the architect had spoken some additional words, the monkey started panicking, returned immediately to his cage, locked the door and threw away the key.
“Ok” the devil said, “I will keep my word, but could you, please, tell me what exactly you said to the chimpanzee?” “Of course!”, the architect responded, “First, I told him what job I have which made him laugh. Then I told him what income I get which made him cry. Finally, I told him that we are still searching for new architects!”
Seen on Hitchhiker’s Guide to Software Architecture and Everything Else – by Michael Stal.