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"I'm Key Cogg" What does that mean exactly?


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Old 10-01-2011, 06:22
Styker
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Never heard that phrase before jamie used it, for a minute I thought he was calling himself a fish as in Cod! Still do think that whenever thinking about him saying that!

I bet if he was a woman, he'd describe himself as top totty hey?!
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Old 10-01-2011, 13:11
Thrombin
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Never heard that phrase before jamie used it, for a minute I thought he was calling himself a fish as in Cod! Still do think that whenever thinking about him saying that!

I bet if he was a woman, he'd describe himself as top totty hey?!

A cog is a tooth on the rim of a gear wheel or clockwork mechanism. A key cog would be one that is essential for the smooth working of that mechanism.

Saying you're a key cog means that you are an essential component to the correct functioning of the organization you are a part of. It emphasizes that you are willing to work as an integral part of a team but that you are a particularly important member of that team.

Personally I never saw a problem with the analogy

Regards

Julian
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Old 10-01-2011, 13:32
BelligerentBoss
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A cog is a tooth on the rim of a gear wheel or clockwork mechanism. A key cog would be one that is essential for the smooth working of that mechanism.

Saying you're a key cog means that you are an essential component to the correct functioning of the organization you are a part of. It emphasizes that you are willing to work as an integral part of a team but that you are a particularly important member of that team.

Personally I never saw a problem with the analogy

Regards

Julian
There's no such thing as a 'key cog', all cogs are the same, so that's utter bollocks mate!

Can show us a single example of your 'key cog' theory?
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Old 10-01-2011, 13:38
mklass
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There's no such thing as a 'key cog', all cogs are the same, so that's utter bollocks mate!

Can show us a single example of your 'key cog' theory?
Lol ..... A lot of work/office speech is bollocks though isn't it!, it's just words said that don't mean anything but are just said to make the speaker appear to be 'on top' of it all.......
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Old 10-01-2011, 15:21
Tercet2
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The phrase isn't unknown, even though I'd agree it seems to be nonsense.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...=&oq=&gs_rfai=

But the fact is, Mr. Chairman, for all the challenges the Postal Service of the 21st century faces, it still retains its traditional place as a key cog in how American businesses conduct their affairs and how Americans all across this land communicate.
John M. McHugh (US Congressman, now Secretary for the Army)

I suspect he had phrases like 'key player' and 'not just another cog' floating around in his head, but under pressure had a 'brain fart'. Not for the first time though.
It was obvious what he was trying to say, as Thrombin explained.
Margaret should/did understand but chose to make fun of him instead.
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Old 10-01-2011, 16:15
Thrombin
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There's no such thing as a 'key cog', all cogs are the same, so that's utter bollocks mate!

Can show us a single example of your 'key cog' theory?
I can certainly imagine a mechanism in which there was redundancy built in so that the loss of a single cog would not cause the mechanism to fail. If two wheels interlocked to drive a third for example, the loss of a cog on one wheel would not be key. But any cog on the third wheel might be key as the whole thing would grind to a halt if it was missing.

Not that you'd want to be likened to a "third wheel". That would just muddy the analogy

Regards

Julian
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Old 10-01-2011, 16:54
Sweet FA
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I wouldn't worry, OP - you could tell Jamie hadn't a clue what he was blathering on about either...
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Old 10-01-2011, 16:57
Jepson
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I can certainly imagine a mechanism in which there was redundancy built in so that the loss of a single cog would not cause the mechanism to fail. If two wheels interlocked to drive a third for example, the loss of a cog on one wheel would not be key. But any cog on the third wheel might be key as the whole thing would grind to a halt if it was missing.
Such a thing might be theoretically possible but it would be the exact opposite of a 'key cog'.

A key cog would rather imply that every other cog was paired in a redundant configuration except for itself.

Unlikely anyone would do anything so daft.
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Old 10-01-2011, 17:08
Thrombin
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Such a thing might be theoretically possible but it would be the exact opposite of a 'key cog'.

A key cog would rather imply that every other cog was paired in a redundant configuration except for itself.

Unlikely anyone would do anything so daft.
If you're going to build redundancy into a system then obviously you want to make sure that as much as possible can be redundant but while redundancy improves reliability it's also more costly and less efficient so I don't see why a mechanism wouldn't conceivably compromise and consist of key components as well as redundant components.

Taking the analogy into a company setting, you might have two assistant managers but you wouldn't want two CEO's!

One's a key cog and the others aren't so key
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Old 11-01-2011, 18:15
Styker
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I wouldn't worry, OP - you could tell Jamie hadn't a clue what he was blathering on about either...


Anyone know what he's doing now?
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Old 13-01-2011, 22:50
specialk78
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http://mymessylittlethoughts.wordpre...s-for-absence/
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Old 14-01-2011, 10:07
The Spoon
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A cog is a tooth on the rim of a gear wheel or clockwork mechanism...

Personally I never saw a problem with the analogy

Regards

Julian
apart from the point that every cog is equally important and a geared wheel depends on every cog being the same...

...which makes a 'stand out' cog something of a nuisance

get your point!

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Old 17-01-2011, 23:18
thenetworkbabe
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Such a thing might be theoretically possible but it would be the exact opposite of a 'key cog'.

A key cog would rather imply that every other cog was paired in a redundant configuration except for itself.

Unlikely anyone would do anything so daft.
English is simpler than that isn't it? Cog just means element or factor in the analogy. The analogy either means a key cog (or cog wheel) in the system or it implies some cog (wheel?) is are more important than others. In life its not that unusual for something to keep on going when something falls out or something breaks, but to stop completely if something else breaks. Not even sure that if you took the right cogs out of some clockworks you would stop the clock or just end up with one thats less accurate but still roughly right?
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Old 18-01-2011, 08:30
Jepson
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English is simpler than that isn't it? Cog just means element or factor in the analogy. The analogy either means a key cog (or cog wheel) in the system or it implies some cog (wheel?) is are more important than others. In life its not that unusual for something to keep on going when something falls out or something breaks, but to stop completely if something else breaks. Not even sure that if you took the right cogs out of some clockworks you would stop the clock or just end up with one thats less accurate but still roughly right?
Generally speaking a cog is part of a transmission train so if any part of the train is removed it stops working.

However, your mention of clocks provokes a thought: If you removed a cog from the alarm drive train it would stop the alarm working but not the rest of the clock.

Also if you had a bike with one chain ring (front cog) and multiple rear cogs I suppose that you could call the chain ring a 'key' cog.

But, really, when you consider a lot of the management-speak gobbledygook, 'key cog' barely registers on the scale of meaningless nonsense.
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Old 29-01-2011, 15:19
brangdon
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apart from the point that every cog is equally important and a geared wheel depends on every cog being the same...
I think here "cog" is short for "cog wheel". And "key" may mean that it is the cog wheel placed under most stress. The others you can take for granted, but the key cog needs to be especially well-made to take the stress.
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Old 03-02-2011, 23:51
BelligerentBoss
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Nah, he said 'cog' not cog wheel. Anyway, as a true toolmaker, I can assure you that a cog should actually be referred to as a tooth, and a cog wheel is a 'gear'.

I only made the mistake of calling the tooth a cog once at the start of my apprenticeship, the toolmaker I served under promised me that if I ever said 'cog' again, he'd shove a gear wheel up my arse until I got it right, not a prospect I looked forward to, lol!
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Old 29-04-2011, 22:47
SillyBillyGoat
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"The early birm gets the word"
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Old 30-04-2011, 17:28
meglosmurmurs
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I still laugh at those words "I'm a key cog" wtf!

"The early birm gets the word"
lol it must be very early, as I don't think I've actually seen a birm before.
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Old 05-05-2011, 19:43
Baldrick Phd
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Generally speaking most gear wheels are actual designed to suffer a limited number of cog (tooth) break ages before system failure. If you looked at the gears wheels in a gear box you would see that they would have 5 or 6 teeth in contact at the same time.

Anyway isn't the expression king-pin
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Old 05-05-2011, 19:45
Baldrick Phd
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Nah, he said 'cog' not cog wheel. Anyway, as a true toolmaker, I can assure you that a cog should actually be referred to as a tooth, and a cog wheel is a 'gear'.

I only made the mistake of calling the tooth a cog once at the start of my apprenticeship, the toolmaker I served under promised me that if I ever said 'cog' again, he'd shove a gear wheel up my arse until I got it right, not a prospect I looked forward to, lol!
I got bollocked for that
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Old 05-05-2011, 20:28
BelligerentBoss
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I got bollocked for that
Ooh that sounds more painful than having it shoved up the arse!
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