Strange Dreams

[bjarvis]

I was in an office where apparently I worked with a number of other technical people. There was some form of building infrastructure problem which directly impacted our business although it was outside our realm to resolve.

In a small lounge, 2-3 other technical folks and myself were brainstorming other possible points of failure and how we could design these potential issues out of our systems. A high-level business manager happened by and overheard our discussion; he then gently chastised us for being so negative and pessimistic, suggesting we were inadvertently undermining the morale and confidence of the employees at large.

We let him finish, then I asked him to sit for a moment with us. I then explained that unless we collectively fearlessly discussed potential issues, we wouldn't have a comprehensive view of our overall vulnerabilities. If we didn't identify as many points of failure as humanly possible, we could be at risk of multiple catastrophic scenarios which could undermine or possibly destroy our business. It would our collective responsibility --his included-- to ensure that never happens.

He began to see the light. Once we began asking him questions about how a failure in his realm of responsibilities could possibly go wrong, he became an equal and supportive participant in the remaining brainstorming session, possibly without being aware of his sudden enlightenment.

Later in the same dream, my technical people and I determined there was little we could do for the business at this moment because of the external failure: until the building infrastructure issue was resolved, we could do little but talk. Decided it would be more comfortable to talk outside the ailing building, we began taking the elevator down to the ground floor lobby (we were on the 20th floor or such).

Bad idea. Ten seconds after we were under way, the elevator lights began blinking ominously, it shuddered and then suddenly lurched hard down and to the right. We held on tightly to the handrails while the cage dropped a floor. When the elevator seemed stable, the doors were pried open: we were lodged between two floors. I slid out the elevator and landed practically face first onto the lower floor. My other colleagues scrambled behind me and the doors closed behind us.

I woke up.


Why is this dream exceptional enough that I remember it? Only minor drama and had a happy ending. Wanna take a guess how rare that is in my dream world?

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[manley1.livejournal.com]

*snarfs coffee* :-)