Impossible Task

Once, there was a man who liked making pots. He handmade simple pots for holding water.

A friend convinced him to turn his interest into a business. He wanted the pot-maker to become the boss of this company and said that he would become the technical assistant.

The pot-maker thought that a technical assistant should work on the technical aspects of the company. So he asked his friend to prepare a production plan.

But the plan never came.

Instead his friend came back with many statistics about the potential market of waterpots. He dreamt of how rich they will soon become.

So the pot-maker made his own production plan, since he was more familiar with the details of pot making anyway. He then asked the technical assistant to work on a financial plan.

Again the plan never came. His friend only gave him bits of information about the cost of raw materials, but flooded the pot-maker with loads of statistics about huge global market for water containers of every possible type. He was also working on the expansion plan to turn the company into an international corporation. He told the pot-maker how he would buy a car and buy his mother a present when they became rich.

And so the pot-maker made his own financial plan.

Without anyone realizing it, things were gradually changing. Instead of the boss, the pot-maker had become a technical assistant, while the technical assistant wasn't doing anything technical at all.

When the pot-maker tried to think of his own market idea, his friend became furious, banged on the table and shouted at him. The pot-maker became more and more frightened of his friend.
His friend wanted to become a grand market strategist.

The pot-maker was just happy to receive any form of help. He focused his efforts on designing a simple pot that can hold water.

He then passed this prototype pot to his friend.

"No," his friend said. "Your pot lacks details. It needs many details to be a good pot."

Although his friend was not an artist and has never made a pot before, the pot-maker had no idea what kind of pot the market wanted, so he let his friend modify the design.

When the redesigned pot came back, the pot-maker was stunned.

Many large globs of clay were stuck on the pot in a disorganized fashion. The simple aesthetics of the pot had been transformed into a hideous mess. To make things worse, deep cracks were made into the pot such that it now leaks water.

The pot-maker was disappointed but he didn't want to offend his friend. So he tried his best to carve a simple design by cutting off as little of the clay as he could. He then plugged the cracks in the pot so that it no longer leaks.

When his friend saw the refined pot, he was pleased with its improved appearance. The pot-maker asked his friend to help remove more of the clay to make the pot better.

However, instead of reducing the clay, his friend went ahead to add more and created more cracks. This time the additional clay bits were so sharp that a person could get injured by these protrusions.

The pot-maker was devastated. He didn't want to get scolded by his friend but he had to remove those dangerous points. It was a stressful decision.

To his relief the friend accepted those changes and the first production pot was completed.

Next, they had to make a promotion brochure to help sell the pot. The printing company originally allocated two pages for them, but due to practical limitations that was reduced to a one-page pamphlet.

The original brochure design was too long to fit in one page.

The pot-maker removed some details from the brochure design and asked his friend to help remove more details.

To his horror, his friend once again added more information, including detailed statistics of a market segment they were not even entering. He demoted the main market segment to the bottom of the pamphlet. Even worse, there was much more text than even the original brochure.

When the pot-maker asked his friend to reduce the information and simplify the text, he started to get angry again. He wanted the pot-maker to do the editing.

The pot-maker was faced with an increasingly impossible task - how could you fit more stuff into less space and still have large, readable fonts?

He gave up completely and asked his friend to prepare the whole brochure. Later the pot-maker called his friend to check on his progress. His friend was very angry because despite his efforts he could not fit all his stuff into one page.

The pot-maker said "I am the only one who can fit the brochure into one page."

His friend retorted "That is because you are an egomanic!"

To which the pot-maker weakly replied "No. It's because I have less stuff."

His friend was still furious and scolded the pot-maker continuously for a few minutes.

Suddenly the pot-maker felt a crushing pain on his chest, screamed and collapsed.