DeMarco зажигает опять

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He sets up a second device and connects it to the first, on the other side of the room. By manipulating a dial on the face of the first, he causes the other machine to come alive. It gives off a loud BRRRRINNNNNNNGGGGGGG! After half a second, it rings again and then again and again, deafeningly.

"Now, what's a fellow got to do to stop this ringing? He's got to race over to his BellOPhone and pick up the receiver." He picks up the receiver on the ringing device and hands it to one of the committee members. Then he bounds back to the other side of the room and starts shouting into the mouthpiece of the originating device. "Hello! Hello! Can you hear me? See that, I've got his complete attention. Now I can sell him something, or get him to lend me money or try to change his religion or whatever I want!"

The committee is stunned. You raise your hand and venture a question, "Since nobody could possibly have missed the first ring, why bother to repeat it?" "Ah, that's the beauty of the BellOPhone," says A.G. "It never gives you the chance to wonder whether you want to answer it or not. No matter what you're involved in at the time it rings, no matter how engrossed you are, you drop everything to answer it. Otherwise, you know it will just keep on ringing. We're going to sell billions of these things and never ever allow any to be sold that ring only once."

The committee goes into a huddle, but it doesn't take very long to come up with a judgment. You all decide without a dissenting voice to throw this turkey out the door. The device is so disruptive that if you were ever dumb enough to allow it to be installed, nobody would ever get any work done around the office. A few years' effect of the BellOPhone and we'd all be reduced to buying goods from Taiwan and Korea. And our country might even have a negative balance of trade.