Joe A. recently had some troubles at work. Joe works for a company that runs scrolling marquee signs using a markup language similar to HTML. It's a small company, run by two guys we'll call Tom and Bill.

Tom is the technical lead and main owner. The business was his idea to begin with. Bill, on the other hand, came from an accounting background and doesn't have much technical knowledge. Joe, as a technical guy, always reported to Tom.

Things were going great. Tom made Joe feel at ease, and due to Tom's technical background, he was never surprised by the cost of servers and software licenses. The company was growing, though, and Tom became harder and harder to get a hold of. He'd come in to work, close his office door, work secluded for eight or more hours, and leave. If someone wanted to talk to him, they'd have to go through his secretary. One day, Joe got an email from Tom, saying that Joe would have to report to Bill now.

Because Bill had little to no technical knowledge, it wasn't working great. Bill didn't understand why hardware and software cost so much, and would always recommend cost cutting measures that didn't make sense for the business.

One morning, Joe came in to work, unlocked his office, and logged in as usual. Within five minutes, Bill stormed into Joe's office and demanded to know why their server wasn't running.

Bill: The phone's been ringing off the hook today! I've gotten like 20 calls from angry customers and it's not even 9:00 yet! What happened?

Joe: I'm not sure... I mean, I didn't change anything. Just give me a second to look into this.

Their main server was housed locally, so Joe started diagnosing the issue right away. The problem was immediately apparent once he logged in — there was no internet connection. He reseated the cables and still didn't have any luck. He returned to his desk and confirmed that his workstation had no internet access either. Joe went back to Bill to report his findings.

Joe: I figured it out; the internet connection is dead. I'll call the ISP and see if they have an ETA for a fix.

Bill: "ISP?"

Joe: Internet Service Provider.

Bill: Oh... uh, I think I know why the internet is down, but that shouldn't matter.

Joe: (sigh) Yeah...?

Bill: I stopped paying the bill three months ago. I mean, we only use email, anyway — I don't see why we need the whole expensive internet!

Though Bill is still blissfully unaware of the reason it's necessary, Joe managed to get him to start paying those irritating bills again.