Innovation & chaos ... in search of optimality

I had a PC problem yesterday, so I called on Eric, the 11 year old next door, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control and asked him to come over.

Eric clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.

As he was walking away, I called after him, ‘So, what was wrong?’

He replied, ‘It was an ID ten T error.’

I didn’t want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, ‘An ID ten T error? What’s that … in case I need to fix it again?’

Eric grinned …. ‘Haven’t you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?’
‘No,’ I replied.
‘Write it down,’ he said, ‘and I think you’ll figure it out.’

So I wrote down: ID10T

I used to like Eric, the little brat .