I'm sorry Captain, that's just impossible...

Scotty is the engineer on the first Star Trek series. Friday afternoon I was chatting with a friend about what it means to be the kind of person, like Scotty, who fixes things.  These are the rules we arrived at:¹

• Scotty Rule #1: Telling people it’s impossible, and then doing it anyhow is always a good idea.
• Scotty Rule #2: You’re the only one who can wear a red shirt and survive.
• Scotty Rule #3: People appreciate fixes more when you speak with a Scottish accent.²
• Scotty Rule #4: You can always tweak the tolerances to +/-5%. The warp drive will always give you just a little more even when you say, “I’ve given it all I’ve got”. She’ll hold.
• Scotty Rule #5: Real engineers don’t work in cubicles.³
• Scotty Rule #6: You only absolutely need to get the job done enough to rescue everyone and fly home.

1. Image property of Paramount Pictures [↩]
2. Or when they can’t understand what you’re saying. [↩]
3. May there never be cubicles in space! [↩]