https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
(Draw seven perpendicular red lines)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7MIJP90biM
Credit to D. Scott Williamson, Expert
Here are 11 things "I can't do it" can mean:
I don't have time
I don't want to
I don't have anyone who knows how to
I want someone else to do it
I don't want to maintain it once built
I want to work on this other thing
Doing it would take away job security for me
I think it is beneath me
You're not going to use it anyway
I don't think it is worth doing
I think it is too expensive
I think it would be easyish to fill out another 10 reasons for what "can't" really means that are more common than "it is flat out impossible regardless of budget/resources".
Yes. But the skit isn't about that.
I often get impossible tasks from managers. Luckily when I tell them why they actually listen and aren't purposefully obtuse like the team from the skit. But the obtuse manner of the meeting is part of the comedy. Sometimes the management/sales/marketing team just doesn't get it.
The most common request?
"Please enhance this 92x92 .jpg logo x5-x10 its current size without lowering the quality of the logo."
My most common pushback?
"Sure. Get with their designer and get me the original file, be it .psd or .ai so that I can work with a larger resolution copy of the image. If they don't have the original file for their logo, you are asking for one of two things: 1) Recreate their logo or 2) The impossible. If (1) my answer is no. If (2) my answer is with modern technology, I can't."
I've also been asked to uncrop photos. Not as in "restore a backup from before we saved over it with a cropped version" but literally uncrop a photo.
I don't necessarily blame these people or get angry with them. I blame CSI and other investigative shows where they "enhance" a blurry photo to 4k crystal-clear resolution and read the reflection off of a button of a guys' jeans to read the licence plate of his car. They've been told this shit is possible by TV shows that use just-enough real tech to make the fake tech seem real to people outside of the loop.
Does that help you in any way in a commercial setting? No, unless you are Google or Apple or the like and it's not a simple request but the basis of a new business division.
I wouldn't get angry with them, but I would certainly blame them for thinking something is possible which a small child should be able to tell is not. I would advise you avoid working with people who believe computers are literally magic, as your life will be much better.
