Or, the best one of all, mis-quote a known fact in their earshot. You’ll have every engineer’s attention at that point.

Foolproof: break the coffee maker and then say “there has got to be a better way to get your attention.”

What worked on my friend (in other words, what pissed my friend off) was saying “Why don’t you…” and then proposing something other than what he was doing, with bonus points for proposing an idea that came to mind there and then without thinking about it much.

I’d add one more: wouldn’t it be cool if this thing had …

There’s gotta be a better way to raise your alt-right incel son, Greg