In 1969, Man landed on the moon. I remember reading in a book about how space technology has improve our daily life. This book also point out that millions of dollars was spent to develop a pen that work in zero gravity. The ballpoint pen we use will not work in space as there are no gravity to pull the ink down to feed the ball. The final solution is pressurized helium is sealed with the ink well to at the right pressure so that it can push out the ink as the ball make contact with the paper. The pressure has to be just right as too much pressure with cause the ink to eject out at low pressure zero gravity environment inside the spaceship.
Why did I tell you this story. I have similar experience today. The pump in my pond has not been working well in the last few weeks. I cleaned up the filter twice and still the flow was slow. I bought a new pump at $32 and the flow is just a dribble. I went back to the garden supply store to change to a bigger pump that cost $144. Still no joy! My wife who was giving me the moral support asked if it is the water hose that may be clogged. I changed the water hose and hey presto, the flow is back to normal again. Now I am still with a $144 device that I do not need and the cost of the solution? The hose cost only 50 cents. Life is like this. I wished I did a better troubleshooting. I would have save the $144. Why only when I have paid so much before I manage to get to the root of the problem?
This also draw analogy to what happens at work. Many a times, low cost low tech solutions are available. Throwing money and hiring an army may or may not bring the desired results or performance. This is especially true in my company.
Back to the space age problem. The solution? Instead of spending millions of dollars of American taxpayer money, a reliable low tech device that has existed for several decades. It is really cheap and it works! It is called a pencil.
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