SET

I have for many years been a member of SET – the Society for the Elimination of TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms).

SET is an advocate for TAE – Total Acronym Eradication.

In addition to being a founding member of SET, I am also a SVP (Senior Vice President).

I helped found SET after realizing that I had bought something at EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports) for use in EMS (Emergency Medical Services).

This, of course, called to mind one of my favorite lines from the movie “Good Morning Vietnam”: “Since the VP is such a VIP should we keep the PC on the QT?”

While I was at CMU (Carnegie Mellon University, not to be confused with Central Michigan University), or more accurately while I was at CIT (Carnegie Institute of Technology, one of the colleges that make up CMU) one of the senior SCS (School of Computer Science, another of the colleges in CMU) professors was asked what he thought the fundamental limits of computer science would be. He thought for a moment, then answered “there are only 17,576 possible three letter acronyms.” It is my opinion that he was at least partially serious.

Boeing, of course, is extremely fond of acronyms. We use AP for Air Plane, or A/C for Air Craft. L/N for Line Number. AOG for Aircraft On Ground (which means it has been grounded, and thus an urgent situation, not that it is just unloading at an airport). Every airline has a three-letter customer code. Even airlines which only have two words in their name. Boeing itself, of course, has BCA (Boeing Commercial Aircraft), BDS (Boeing Defense and Space), and EOT (Engineering Operations and Technology) divisions.

I half expect that at some seniority level (say, 25 years with the company) I will be taught the secret handshake and told that Boeing is actually an acronym – Bringing Overall Engineering Into a New Globe or something. Perhaps Big Overbearing Executive Idiots... or perhaps we shouldn't go there.