Check out these Trick of the Trade.
After explaining how birthday clowns have to keep on top of what phrases or words will always get a laugh this year, he goes on to explain software engineering.
"Every year there seems to be a technical whatsit that management recognizes as the sexy-cool new thing but doesn’t really understand. This year, for instance, a programmer can always tack the phrase “and I’m thinking of incorporating some XML functionality” onto a project summary to explain why he’ll need an extra week, account for a missed deadline, or impress a superior. In this respect, the gap between software engineers and birthday clowns is almost negligible."
-- Matthew Baldwin
That last sentence is very funny to me. There are also lots of really good tricks sprinkled in the rest of the article.
-- Matthew Baldwin
