> Stop drawing the ductwork in red. Red is for fire protection. You are not fire. Use cyan. Cyan is for air. It flows better.

Leo’s boss, a tight-lipped woman named Ms. Chen, had given him a deadline: Friday. It was Wednesday night. And AutoCAD 2002 was not cooperating.

Leo laughed. It was a nervous, squeaky laugh. He figured his RAM was failing. Or maybe the cheap coffee from the break room had finally pickled his brain. He decided to play along.

Leo felt personally attacked by a piece of software. “Rude,” he muttered.

He shut down the computer. As the screen went dark, he could have sworn he saw one last flicker of green text:

The next morning, Ms. Chen opened the file without a single error. She stared at the flawless ductwork layout, then at Leo. “This is the cleanest drawing you’ve ever produced. What changed?”