For three days and nights the Java master did not emerge
from his cubicle. On the fourth day the monks of the temple
sent a novice to inquire after him.
The novice found the master at his whiteboard, contemplating
a single dataflow diagram. The novice recognized it as a
minor component of the vast system that the monks were
contracted to maintain. Politely, the novice asked what the
master was working on.
The master replied: “There is a defect, and I am considering
the best way to repair it.”
The novice said, “You preach often about the importance of
setting priorities. How, then, can you obsess about
something so tiny and unimportant?”
Without saying a word, the master raised his staff and
brought it down hard upon the bare left foot of the novice,
breaking his smallest toe. The novice screamed in pain and
staggered from the cubicle. In that moment, the novice was
enlightened.
