A parable:
The King wants a sword, so he sends a messenger to the town Blacksmith with a message: “I WANT A SWORD, YOU HAVE ONE WEEK TO DELIVER ME A SWORD.”
“No problem,” thinks the Blacksmith as he gets to work.
One week later, a porter from the Blacksmith brings the King a sword. The King inspects it. “Yes, this is a good sword,” he says, commenting on its obvious high quality. So he sends another messenger: “I WANT 10 SWORDS, YOU HAVE ONE WEEK TO DELIVER ME 10 SWORDS.”
The Blacksmith sends the messenger back with a note that says, “I’m not confident I can do this, I’ll try to deliver your order but I may not have enough supplies or time to deliver 10 quality swords in one week.” The King sends the messenger back again with the same message plus the words “OR ELSE” added to the end.
One week later, a porter from the Blacksmith brings the King 10 swords. The King inspects them. “Yes, these are good swords,” he says, commenting on their obvious high quality. So he sends another messenger: “I WANT 100 SWORDS, YOU HAVE ONE WEEK TO DELIVER ME 100 SWORDS.”
The Blacksmith, confused and exasperated, sends the messenger back with a note that says, “This is impossible, can you at least give me some extra gold to hire some help or provide workers and materials from the castle?” The King sends the messenger back again with a message that says “NO” plus the words “OR ELSE” added to the end for some reason.
The Blacksmith, receiving this message, is so despondent he doesn’t even bother sending another reply. His despair is so deep it causes a quantum timeline divergence.
In Timeline 1:
One week later, a porter from the Blacksmith brings the King 50 swords. The King inspects them. “Yes, these are good swords,” he says, commenting on their obvious high quality, “But this is definitely not 100 swords, what the hell? GET THE BLACKSMITH!”
Some time shortly later the guards come in escorting the Blacksmith. He looks ragged, short on sleep, bruised, missing a few fingers, with bandages wrapped around several parts of his body.
“Yo, what gives?” asks the King.
“I’m sorry, King,” says the Blacksmith, “I cut as many corners as I could and stretched my resources as far as possible but I was only able to produce 50 swords.”
“Since you were unable to make the 100 swords I demanded that means you are lazy and a bad worker,” replies the King.
“Are we going to ignore the fivefold increase in productivity compared to the previous week with no increase in resource inputs?” asks the Blacksmith, “Or the obvious personal sacrifices I’ve made in pursuit of an impossible task?”
“Yes,” says the King, “Send for the scribe, that I may issue a written warning!”
In Timeline A:
One week later, a porter from the Blacksmith brings the King 100 swords. The King inspects them. “Yes, these are—wait a minute these aren’t even swords,” he says, commenting on their obvious low quality, “This is just a few jagged pieces of scrap metal and several sticks that are sort of sword-shaped, what the hell? GET THE BLACKSMITH!”
Some time shortly later the guards come in escorting Some Guy. It’s just…Some Guy. Some extremely generic looking peasant Guy.
“Wait, who are you?” asks the King.
“I dunno, I don’t have a name,” says Some Guy.
“None of us have names, stop calling attention to it,” interjects one of the guards who brought him in.
“Shut up,” says the King, “Where’s the Blacksmith?”
“I dunno,” replies Some Guy, “I didn’t get a chance to ask the guy I took over from before he took off. Apparently after you ordered the 100 swords the Blacksmith quit, then his apprentice quit, then they brought in another guy, trained him in smithing, and then he quit, then they hired me.”
“And you made these?”
“Y-yeah? I mean I don’t have any training in smithing either so I had to just kind of wing it but it was either this or go back to peasanting.”
The King thinks on it a moment. “You show great initiative, you’re promoted to Royal Blacksmith,” he declares.
“Sweet! I mean, why!?” replies the Royal Blacksmith, baffled, “Are we going to ignore the obvious drop in work output quality? Or the absurd turnover and lack of training?”
“Yes,” says the King, “Lord knows I wasn’t going to actually use any of these!”
The entire court bursts into laughter.