Mathematicians hunt elephants by going to Africa,
throwing out everything that is not an elephant, and catching one of
whatever is left.

Experienced mathematicians will attempt to prove
the existence of at least one unique elephant before proceeding to step 1
as a subordinate exercise.
Professors of mathematics will prove the existence
of at least one unique elephant and then leave the detection and capture
of an actual elephant as an exercise for their graduate students.

Computer scientists hunt elephants by exercising
Algorithm A:

Go to Africa.
Start at the Cape of Good Hope.
Work northward in an orderly manner, traversing the continent
alternately east and west.
During each traverse pass,

Catch each animal seen.
Compare each animal caught to a known elephant.
Stop when a match is detected.

Experienced computer programmers modify Algorithm A
by placing a known elephant in Cairo to ensure that the algorithm will
terminate.
Assembly language programmers prefer to execute
Algorithm A on their hands and knees.

Hardware engineers hunt elephants by going to
Africa, catching gray animals at random, and stopping when any one of
them weighs within plus or minus 15 percent of any previously observed
elephant.

Economists dont hunt elephants, but they believe
that if elephants are paid enough, they will hunt themselves.

Statisticians hunt the first animal they see N times
and call it an elephant.

Consultants dont hunt elephants, and many have
never hunted anything at all, but they can be hired by the hour to advise
those people who do.

Operations research consultants can also measure the
correlation of hat size and bullet color to the efficiency of
elephant-hunting strategies, if someone else will only identify the
elephants.

Politicians dont hunt elephants, but they will
share the elephants you catch with the people who voted for them.

Lawyers dont hunt elephants, but they do follow
the herds around arguing about who owns the droppings.

Software lawyers will claim that they own an entire
herd based on the look and feel of one dropping.

Vice Presidents of engineering, research, and
development try hard to hunt elephants, but their staffs are
designed to prevent it. When the vice president does get to hunt
elephants, the staff will try to ensure that all possible elephants are
completely prehunted before the vice president sees them. If the vice
president does happen to see a elephant, the staff will:

(1) compliment the vice presidents keen eyesight and

(2) enlarge itself to prevent any recurrence.

Senior managers set broad elephant-hunting policy
based on the assumption that elephants are just like field mice, but with
deeper voices.

Quality assurance inspectors ignore the elephants
and look for mistakes the other hunters made when they were packing the
jeep.

Sales people dont hunt elephants but spend their
time selling elephants they havent caught, for delivery two days before
the season opens.

Software Sales people ship the first thing they catch
and write up an invoice for an elephant.

Hardware sales people catch rabbits, paint them gray,
and sell them as desktop elephants.