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Overthinking
71–80 of 96 posts
Re: Overthinking
#72I solved the second one in a couple minutes in my head with value substitutions. Unless you were to do with with a pen and paper, it'd be pretty difficult to pick up on the closed loops. Generating the following list took less than 30 secs when I looked it over, so obviously the example of it taking a long time to solve is a bit contrived. What threw me off a bit at first was that the number 4 was not used at all. I…
That is how I did it. I actually don't understand what is meant by looking for shapes or closed loops.
Notice how an 8 has two loops (circles), and a 0, 6 and 9 have one each? The other numbers don't have closed loops, except sometimes 4.
Re: Overthinking
#73[deleted]
Re: Overthinking
#74[deleted]
Re: Overthinking
#75What a well written article! Must have taken a lot of thought to write this well :)
Re: Overthinking
#76>php abc.php
Looking for 8+8+0+9 being 6 : found 2+2+1+1 : 6
Looking for 7+1+1+1 being 0 : found 0+0+0+0 : 0
Looking for 2+1+7+2 being 0 : found 0+0+0+0 : 0
Looking for 6+6+6+6 being 4 : found 1+1+1+1 : 4
Looking for 1+1+1+1 being 0 : found 0+0+0+0 : 0
Looking for 3+2+1+3 being 0 : found 0+0+0+0 : 0
Looking for 7+6+6+2 being 2 : found 0+1+1+0 : 2
Looking for 9+3+1+3 being 1 : found 1+0+0+0 : 1
Looking for 0+0+0+0 being 4 : found 1+1+1+1 : 4
Looking for 2+2+2+2 being 0 : found 0+0+0+0 : 0
Looking for 3+3+3+3 being 0 : found 0+0+0+0 : 0
Looking for 5+5+5+5 being 0 : found 0+0+0+0 : 0
Looking for 8+1+9+3 being 3 : found 2+0+1+0 : 3
Looking for 8+0+9+6 being 5 : found 2+1+1+1 : 5
Looking for 1+0+1+2 being 1 : found 0+1+0+0 : 1
Looking for 7+7+7+7 being 0 : found 0+0+0+0 : 0
Looking for 9+9+9+9 being 4 : found 1+1+1+1 : 4
Looking for 7+7+5+6 being 1 : found 0+0+0+1 : 1
Looking for 6+8+5+5 being 3 : found 1+2+0+0 : 3
Looking for 9+8+8+1 being 5 : found 1+2+2+0 : 5
Looking for 5+5+3+1 being 0 : found 0+0+0+0 : 0
Looking for 2+5+8+1 being 2 : found 0+0+2+0 : 2
Re: Overthinking
#77I hate to say this, but the article is complete bullcrap. Have you even seen the movie he references ? The protagonist is supposed to be this "naturally talented genius" who detests the bookish Indian academic education system, so throughout the film he takes potshots at the stuff he's taught in school, ultimately choosing to drop out without a degree until the Dean formally requests him to take the finals, upon whic…
I've never seen the movie.
> Commiting suicide for failing to figure out some stupid propulsion mechanics! I remember thinking at the time that if this same film had been made in English, the critics & audience in the US would have torn it to shreds for such pandering & crass footage. But India being what it is, this very scene was lauded for its authenticity!
But that's kind of unsound to assume that the suicide must have been due to the specific event (not getting a helicopter to fly), rather than the bigger picture in this person's life.
Surely failing to graduate in an environment that places everything on having a paper diploma, including one's own image/self-worth, is more to the point of the suicide.
Re: Overthinking
#78I'm surprised by how defensive the comments are here. They seem out of place, especially on "Hacker" News, an entity whose name by definition emphasizes thinking outside of the box. Frankly the post seems spot on regarding providing multiple examples (1 hypothetical and humorous, 1 general, and 1 specific) of how "engineering" minds' over thinking causes them to be outperformed by "simpler" minds and more obvious solutions. Even his string example could be kept obvious and simple by saying, "Measure the circumference, divide by 11, mark on string at regular intervals, cut to lines," and I'm fairly confident it would still be the best answer.
Any post-sophomoric software engineer will lament an over-designed system they helped create, lauded for its superior design, only to have it become unwieldy and unmanageable under its own monstrous complexity, and then refactored to a far simpler and more intuitive solution. It's no coincidence KISS is taught in every Engineering 101 class across the country.
I found the article to be light and refreshing, reminding me that as an engineer, often I am my own worst enemy...
Or the very least, the enemy of that tragic racquetball launcher I built in Freshman engineering that _literally_ crumpled under its own weight on demo day. Lol.
Re: Overthinking
#79[deleted]
Re: Overthinking
#80I hate to say this, but the article is complete bullcrap. Have you even seen the movie he references ? The protagonist is supposed to be this "naturally talented genius" who detests the bookish Indian academic education system, so throughout the film he takes potshots at the stuff he's taught in school, ultimately choosing to drop out without a degree until the Dean formally requests him to take the finals, upon whic…
I solved that thing in less than 2 minutes too, and bet my pinkie finger nobody would take more than 15 minutes to figure it out.
There is some background of truth in the article, that most people lose the will to be creative (not the ability) over time. But it's over-generalizations galore.