This is the way my mind works…
Called the Chief of GIS who is the one that makes *some* levels of decisions on the database work I am doing right now (nothing in government is a “one man” decision making system!) and we were talking about the “bug” that makes it so things don’t pop up for the public on our website if there is no image attached. (Reeeeeeally stupid “bug” that was actually a top-level decision across the entire website of the National Park Service!)
I didn’t know this was a problem because I am behind the scenes and don’t encounter the “bug,” so I didn’t even know it exists. But, as he and I were testing the data I was beginning to enter, he said, “Oh yeah! There’s that damn bug we need to get fixed. I forgot about that. Except *I* can’t do anything about it really because that is Top Dog stuff.”
In my head, I heard, “Well, DUH! Let’s just create an ‘image not available’ jpg and use that.”
So, knowing that this IS government and NOTHING is easy, I say with all the due respect possible, “Hey… Could we possibly use a dummy image until we get the real image? Like, a jpg or png with ‘image coming soon’ or something?”
“Holy crap! That’s genius! I’ve never even thought about that! I will bring that to the supervisors next week!”
How in the hell has NO ONE ever thought of that???!!!
#IAmACatch… or a nightmare for those who are not willing or able to look outside the box.
And that, my friends, is a direct result of switching my “look at” eyes from what I was taught, “show me everything that can go wrong,” to “show me all that could be possible!”
