The Prototype That Wouldn't Stop Honking

Prototype #318 looked promising.

It was a small red vehicle with flashing lights, a secret compartment, and a button that was supposed to make one cheerful little horn sound.

HONK.

The Toy Inventor team smiled.

Then:

HONK.

HONK.

HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK.

Inventor Elf Gus Gadget pressed the button again.

Nothing happened.

The vehicle continued honking.

He removed the battery.

HONK.

Everyone stared at it.

"That's concerning," Gus said.

The prototype honked through morning break.

It honked through lunch.

It honked while two repair elves examined it.

Finally, Quality Inspector Pip discovered the problem.

The horn button had been installed backward and was stuck beneath the dashboard.

One tiny adjustment later, the room became wonderfully quiet.

Gus wrote the lesson in the prototype log:

PROTOTYPE #318 STATUS: FIXED LESSON: TEST THE BUTTON BEFORE CELEBRATING.

At the Toy Inventor Lab, prototypes are supposed to have problems.

That is what testing is for.

The first version does not have to be the final version.

Sometimes the path to a good idea contains a truly unreasonable amount of honking.

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