Ehem, excuse my simplicity and incompleteness and some lazy abridgement.

Once upon a time, on a far-far-away farm, there lived a little red hen.

One days, she had a craving for a Tres Leches. But the farm on which she lived just ran out of flour and milk.

“Would any one like to help me make a Tres Leches?” Clucked the little red hen.

“Not I !” quacked the duck

“Not I !” Honked the goose

“Not I !” Meow the cat

“Not I !” Barked the dog

“Not I !” Oinked the pig

“Not I !” Bleeted the sheep

“Not I !” Neighed the horse

Uhoh, this is turning into the toxic antisocial non-collaborative farm like way back when little red hen was truly little and wanted bread. She had therapy, physical and otherwise, from the fallout of one stinking loaf of bread for years…

But more importantly, little red hen knows the value of collaboration. She knows that she faces competition for the farm lands and the mill and even the oven. She knows that she doesn’t make any of the multitude of milks needed by the cake, although the egg in the recipe is bespoke.

She musters every ounce of her Hen Power and flies up to the cow. (Yes she flew, she’s unclipped.)

“Cow, I’m going to make you an offer you cannot refuse” clucked the little red hen, “all the milk I need for options to eat half a basis point of my Tres Leches, and that’s my final offer.” The cow, one of the most obese and lonely animal on the farm flutters her eyelids and says yes with gladness, “I’d love to be part of your team, little red hen” for she knew she cannot afford to let this chance pass her by. And plus little red hen already had a successful entrepreneurship experience, she can make bread, “all by herself”, and cow really wished she had part of that bread. And the equity was good. Half basispoint was unheard-of for an off-phylum contributor like cow in this market. It was indeed an offer she cannot refuse.

Now, more loudly, little red hen clucked “would anyone like to help me till the land, sow the seeds, water, debug and harvest the wheat? We also have to ground the wheat into flour and then whip the cream, evaporate and condense the milk and assemble and bake the cake”

“Not I !” quacked the duck

“Not I !” Honked the goose

“Not I !” Meow the cat

“Not I !” Barked the dog

“Not I !” Oinked the pig

“Not I !” Bleeted the sheep

“Not I !” Neighed the horse

“Then we will do it ourselve,” they mooed and clucked in unison, as a team should vocalize, and that’s what they did. The averagely lean and mean team of little red hen and cow set to work hard, and hard work it was.

The chick stood high chaired and oversaw the project management, QA(aka debugging) and egg production. The cow quietly enjoyed tilling, planting, watering, harvesting, milling, milking and kneading. While the labor was consuming, it was a learning and growing experience for her. Their wonderful diversity of biology and culture was the key to the successful collaboration: their whole being, mind and body, fit their role so perfectly that one can’t help but think that they were brought together on this piece of earth just for that reason! This whole thing seem to have design and meaning before and behind it.

The team iterated frequently and tested their code and product thoroughly while making it. And so when it came out of the oven “for the first time,” it is already perfect.

“Will anyone like to eat this cake? Clucked the little red hen.

“I will !” quacked the duck

“I will !” Honked the goose

“I will !” Meow the cat

“I will !” Barked the dog

“I will !” Oinked the pig

“I will !” Bleeted the sheep

“I will !” Neighed the horse

And before they came running, both hen and cow bursted out laughing, heartily, at long last.

“Not by the air in our chimney shim jim will you have any part of our cake.” The two continued as market sentiment rose for the Tres Leches, and demand flew through the roof…, or, as it were, their chiminey. They ate their cake and laughed merrily.

And they lived happily ever after.