It's about time I posted something interesting...

There was once a salesman for a company that made special metal alloys for weapons. He had travelled the world, selling his company’s products to every developed nation. He loved his job and he couldn’t help doing it, even on holiday. One year, he took his holiday in the Amazon Rainforest (it could happen!) and he came across a tribe of Indians who were hunters. He asked them what they used for their arrow heads and they said, “We hunt a wild cat that lives in the forest. We use its fur for clothing, its meat for food and it’s teeth for arrow heads. They are very sharp and easily penetrate the skin of small animals.” The salesman asked how many teeth could be used from each cat and they said, “Four”. Then he asked how accurate their hunters’ archery skills were. They said, “Every child serves a ten year apprenticeship to become a master archer. If they cannot shoot arrows straight, they run out of cat’s teeth and the village people have no meat”.

So the salesman immediately recognised a great opportunity, and he also realised that he needed to keep his best product until last so that he could build up his sale. He asked the leader of the village, “If I could show you a way to hunt more cats, and bigger animals, with a limitless supply of arrow heads and reduce your apprenticeship for archers to just one year, would you be interested?” The wise, yet strangely gullible village leader said, “Of course, can you do a presentation to my board tomorrow?”

So, the salesman showed the villagers arrow heads made from steel. They were heavier than cat’s teeth but harder and sharper. They could buy a limitless supply of arrow heads (because they happened to have natural gold deposits in their village that they didn’t understand the value of) so the hunters didn’t have to be so accurate. With just some basic training in how to use a bow and arrow, anyone could hunt a cat. The villagers rejoiced.

After a few days, the salesman returned and showed the villagers his hollow titanium alloy arrow heads. They were as sharp as steel yet as light as a cat’s tooth. Now that everyone in the village was a hunter, he had more users to demonstrate the product to. Sure enough, the arrow flew further than the steel headed arrow. To the salesman’s surprise, the villagers said, “yeah, very nice, but we’re happy with our steel arrows”. The salesman said, “But you’ll use fewer arrows because these will fly further” and the villagers said, “So?”

The next day the salesman returned with tungsten carbide arrow heads, and had the same reaction as the day before. He was very confused – normally his customers would be getting more and more excited. He decided to go back to the village and show them his best product. “Look”, he said, “I have here arrow heads made with tungsten carbide tips, titanium alloy bodies and with a depleted Uranium filling.” He fired one at a tree and it went straight through, like a hot knife through butter. The villagers said, “Impressive, but we don’t eat trees”. Now the salesman was really upset. Couldn’t these people see the applications of his marvellous arrow heads? Perhaps they were too stupid too understand. His wife had warned him about this when he left her by the poolside in Rio a week earlier.

The wise village leader said, “We can see your arrow heads are indeed marvellous, but remember we are a simple people with simple needs. Your steel arrow heads already represent a step change in technology for us, enabling greater exploitation of our natural habitat without disturbing our learning based culture.” It turned out that a management consultant had been on holiday there just the week before. “Your top of the range arrow heads are too advanced for us. We have neither the skills nor needs to exploit their full potential, therefore we only require something that is one level better than what we have today. Besides, I’m going on a dream quest this afternoon and I’ll be off my head on psycho-active herbs for a few days, so I can’t make a decision until next week”.

The salesman learned a very important lesson on that holiday - that he shouldn’t leave his wife alone in Rio with only a book for company, but that’s another story. Do you know what else he learned?