Do you ever feel like this in a project meeting? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: grouchobyte
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2016, 04:15:10 am
content: Put yourself in the position of the attorney. The other three are the usual suspects. The photocopier is just the vehicle. Substitute your widget project for the photocopier. You are leading the meeting. Now, feel alone?

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2016, 05:58:26 am
content: Have they ever seen a real deposition? It is typically more boring than watching paint dry. That's one hell of dramatization there.

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2016, 06:15:09 am
content: Oh man, that was great.

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 18, 2016, 06:44:15 am
content: I had to laugh ... but maybe for a different reason to most.I understand the manufacturer (of the equipment identified at the very end) has gone to great pains to dissuade the use of their trademarked name incorrectly - for fear of it becoming so commonly used that it becomes a generic word, which causes trademark issues. They have been battling this for ages.The whole skit is based on the confusion from that very usage that they want to eliminate - made delightfully clear in the last line.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2016, 07:29:54 am
content: FYI, it's not a skit -- it's a true dramatization; well, true in the sense that the dialog is verbatim, though the delivery is of course hammed up a bit.Tim

author: DenzilPenberthy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2016, 12:02:13 pm
content: I more often feel like this in project meetings...

author: grouchobyte
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2016, 03:47:57 pm
content: Thats another great video. I was planning on attaching that link as well but decided one was was enough. What I love about the 7 red lines video is the fact that the engineer is dealing with complete morons which is very much like reality. I've often felt completely alone until I started comparing my experiences with other engineers and realized....its not me.....its them. I'm okay. I just gotta get out of here.

author: grouchobyte
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2016, 03:58:33 pm
content: Or in more recent years......http://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQWhy do some people embrace his crap? I only endure it when my clients pay me huge sums of money

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2016, 06:19:09 pm
content: Regarding the original video...as absurd as the dialogue is made to sound, we're seeing it out of context and highly dramatized. In context, if the case did in fact hinge on the precise definition of the term "photocopy" (which the one lawyer says it does, and if you read about the case is true), then it was perfectly prudent on the part of the subject of the deposition to make the lawyer define the term before answering the question. Imagine you're the IT guy at a county government office, minding your own business, and suddenly you're being deposed for a state supreme court case about your office's policies. You didn't make those policies, but your bosses did, and now you have to make sure you don't screw it all up by being careless and saying the wrong thing despite this lawyer's best efforts to trip you up, but you're also under oath.TheNY Timesarticle linked from the video actually has a comment from the deposing lawyer, which is telling (emphasis mine):Quote

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2016, 06:48:23 pm
content: One of the things you need to be careful in depositions is not to let the other side sneak in presumptions. For example, if you are questioned about design doc number X and the question refers to it as "that design doc with 3D IR heated chamber", you want the question to be rephrased and use a proper 'design doc number X' before you answer. Otherwise you implicitly admit that that design doc includes "an IR heated chamber for a 3D printer" which can be used against you. It this case, one of the lawyers says clearly "the word photocopy is an issue in this case".Depositions are adversarial processes and the other lawyer is not your friend. Generally speaking engineers have problem with depositions because they try to 'explain difficult technical details' and often provide more information than the question required. For example, if the question is 'what is Arduino?', 'it's a company name' or even 'can you please be more specific' are valid answers.(I am not a lawyer).

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 19, 2016, 01:39:37 am
content: Really enjoyed that first video.Quote from: zapta on March 18, 2016, 06:48:23 pmI was called on for a project that I was involved with. Once all the formalities were taken care of, the first question the lawyer asked me was if I had worked on a "real time" blah blah blah. My response, "could you please define real time for me". We were done just that quick.