Dustin was a mechanical engineer, and like all mechanical engineers, he spent his life studying ways to make machines work more efficiently. In particular, he studied public transportation systems, always looking for ways to make them move faster with less fuel. When he needed to take a break from his studies, he went outside and meditated, believing that the best way to think about motion was to occasionally concentrate on stillness.
It was for this reason that Dustin did not think of the snails as garden pests. He always found that conversations with them put him in a relaxed mood, and after these conversations he would often do his best work.
One day, as Dustin was sitting in his backyard nursing a cup of coffee and watching the tulips grow, Seymour, a snail with a deep interest in fluid mechanics slithered next to Seymour’s chair.
They talked, as they always did, about motion, and Dustin, on this particular day, talked about the vexing problem of friction, which was causing the town square monorail he was designing to work far below peak efficiency. As he did so, Seymour settled on the blue laser beam that Dustin had been using to cut high carbon steel. When Dustin asked him how he could be so comfortable on such a surface, Dustin proudly discussed the high viscosity graphite based slime that he manufactured, which allowed him to crawl over all sorts of blades and sundry sharp objects…even laser beams.
This, of course, led to a brainstorming session the resulted in the development of a nanotechnological friction-free compound that all but eliminated the drag that had plagued Dustin’s prototype. Dustin’s company won the municipal design contract. And to repay Seymour for his help, Dustin’s installed a miniature monorail system in his yard that allowed snails to get back and forth to their destinations in minutes instead of months, giving them far more time to simply stay in one place and smell the roses.
It was for this reason that Dustin did not think of the snails as garden pests. He always found that conversations with them put him in a relaxed mood, and after these conversations he would often do his best work.
One day, as Dustin was sitting in his backyard nursing a cup of coffee and watching the tulips grow, Seymour, a snail with a deep interest in fluid mechanics slithered next to Seymour’s chair.
They talked, as they always did, about motion, and Dustin, on this particular day, talked about the vexing problem of friction, which was causing the town square monorail he was designing to work far below peak efficiency. As he did so, Seymour settled on the blue laser beam that Dustin had been using to cut high carbon steel. When Dustin asked him how he could be so comfortable on such a surface, Dustin proudly discussed the high viscosity graphite based slime that he manufactured, which allowed him to crawl over all sorts of blades and sundry sharp objects…even laser beams.
This, of course, led to a brainstorming session the resulted in the development of a nanotechnological friction-free compound that all but eliminated the drag that had plagued Dustin’s prototype. Dustin’s company won the municipal design contract. And to repay Seymour for his help, Dustin’s installed a miniature monorail system in his yard that allowed snails to get back and forth to their destinations in minutes instead of months, giving them far more time to simply stay in one place and smell the roses.
