The Scoble Scale

The other day, I was explaining the Scoville Scale, the subjective scale that peppers pungency is measured, to my boss Luke Torney.

At the time, we had a great freelance developer working with us named Adam Scoble and Luke kept calling the Scoville scale, the Scoble Scale.

Simultaneously, there was a particular event at work; Scoble had to come into the office, instead of working from home like he normally does. He had to be there in person for a project brief, which is understandable depending on the project. Scoble lives an hour away by train and came into the office for the meeting, which lasted a total of 4 minutes, for him to take the long train back afterwards. 2 hours wasted for a 4 minute meeting. Needless to say, Scoble was peeved.

2 days later, Luke came into the office with an epiphany. He explained that he figured out what the Scoble Scale should be; an accurate way to communicate your frustration to others. 1 Scoble Unit would be equal to the subjective measure of frustration from a 2 hour commute for a 4 minute meeting.

Brilliant.

We’re now continually using it in the office as an easy way to describe your current state of frustration to other developers without others knowing. I’ve added it to Urban Dictionary for further reference.

I’m hoping that this term gets widely accepted by developers so that it can become a commonly known jargon like the ID10T error or PIBKAC.