Of ice-creams and car engines
In hindsight, everything is easy. Making that hindsight possible is another game altogether...
“Such a weird bug! I try to run the code with any other value, it runs. Only for this data, it fails. It is almost as if it wants to tease me!” - an exasperated Mehfuz vented out.
Mehfuz - a 28 year old Ivy league grad - was alone that weekend in his startup garage – battling his coding demons alone while bringing up the MVP of his startup. The idea was to build something that helped the customer find the right automotive insurance package in the online arena. Sounds simple, but it was a herculean task given the ever-evolving online marketplace.
Just then, Ahsan walked in and sensed the mood in the garage. Ahsan – a mid 60’s serial entrepreneur was an angel investor, mentor and confidante for Mehfuz and team. He started from a humble background in the automotive industry, but with sheer grit and smart ideas, he had carved niche businesses.
Ahsan provided guidance when the team was clueless, he breathed fire into them when they slacked, and he also cheered them when they were dispirited. Today was another such day for Ahsan.
Ahsan – “ Hey Mehfuz, how are you doing? “
Mehfuz – “ Not good at all, Sir! The demo is failing and the first review is in 2 weeks….”
Ahsan (patted on Mehfuz’ shoulder) – “ Don’t panic Mehfuz. You will figure out a way I am sure..”
Mehfuz – “ It works flawlessly for everything, except this dataset. Don’t know, why it hates this one. Silly code! ”
Ahsan burst laughing hearing that, but controlled himself within seconds seeing the pain on Mehfuz’ s face.
Regaining his composure, Ahsan continued – “ Let us take a break and have tea. Sometimes a change of scene and a cup of hot, elaichi tea can unlock solutions!”
Mehfuz was not convinced but went along anyway. Ahsan was more than a mentor, he was also a great friend and well trusted by the team.
As they sipped tea, Ahsan switched topics and mentioned to Mehfuz the importance of sticking out with problems.
As an entrepreneur, Mehfuz had heard this many times and nonchalantly nodded his head. Ahsan picked up the cue and took a pause.
Recollecting something, he mentioned -
“This bug of yours reminds me of an interesting anecdote from the Big 3 Automotive companies that actually happened few decades ago.”
Mehfuz was now all ears. Ahsan was a treasure house of such corporate stories and it was this trait that endeared him to all the startup mentees.
An irate customer walked into the dealership of Big 3 automotive and went straight to the salesman who had sold him a sparkling new convertible.
“That car you sold me does not like Vanilla ice cream!”
The salesman was well trained to handle customers, but this sounded ridiculous.
He chuckled - “Are you kidding me?”
The customer knew it sounded crazy but continued
“You see, we have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert. After dinner each night, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have, and I drive down to the store to get it. Since I bought that car, there seems to be problem though.
If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. But, whenever I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start.
It is getting on my nerves now. What is going on?”
The salesman pointed him to the repair team and they spent a day looking under the hood. They could not find any issue. Everything was well wired and working as designed.
The complaint now floated up the ladder and soon the news reached the Headquarters. Through watercooler and coffee gossips, the President got wind of it. He too brushed aside this as office talk till the customer complaint trail hit his desk. As a duty, he assigned R&D to check it.
After 2 months of the first complaint, a R&D team reached out to the customer and offered to treat him for ice-creams. The customer was relieved to see that his complaint was finally getting some attention.
That night, they hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start.
The team returned for three more nights.
The first night, they got chocolate. The car started.
The second night, he got strawberry. The car started.
The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start!
The R&D team had a good laugh too and returned back, leaving the customer helpless.
Back in the lab, they got their heads together and refused to believe that this man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream.
Another team from factory was now sent to treat the customer with ice-creams but they too returned with nothing.
One of the engineers from the R&D lab took this as a mission and continued his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem.
Over time, he became paranoid and started jotting steps, time of the day, time taken to walk, gas level - all sorts of other data points in the journey from planning to getting an ice-cream.
In few days, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why?
The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pick-up.
All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor.
Now, the question for the engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it took less time and not the flavor of the ice-cream.
As he discussed this new question with his team, they quickly came up with the answer: "Vapor lock".
It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.
So, the simplest solution for the customer was to wait for a few minutes to start the engine when the flavor was vanilla.
Mehfuz smiled as Ahsan completed the story.
Mehfuz - “A plain vanilla solution for a complex problem!”
Ahsan - “That’s the point, young man. Seeing the solution, anyone will say it was simple. But, the real challenge is in sticking with the problem, jostling with the data and then trying different approaches till the problem is solved.
In hindsight, any solution is simple, but to arrive at the solution is not an easy journey. In that journey is hidden the pot of gold!”
Worth Reading
I found Ethos , pathos, logos, metaphor and brevity in this... Thanks for sharing this
Very well articulated Amit!