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Can you instruct a robot to make a PBJ sandwich?

pbj.deliberateinc.com

31–40 of 42 posts

Re: Can you instruct a robot to make a PBJ sandwich?

#31
post #29

This feel diluted compared to what it could have been. Would be better if you had a bunch of instructions and could drag them into sequence at each screen.

It's great marketing! But yes. He considers it an error to specify "Use the same knife for the jelly" even though it's considered correct to state "Wipe the knife clean before using it for jelly". The latter statement implies the former, and if you follow all the instructions both are not wrong. I also consider some of the instructions to be under specified. For example, a piece of bread could be said to have 6 sides…

>The latter statement implies the former

It does not, unless you have previously instructed not to intermix ingredients in their container.

Re: Can you instruct a robot to make a PBJ sandwich?

#32

Although this is a facetious take, instructing a robot to follow recipes is a fantastic introduction to coding. I added a visual scripting layer to Overcooked so kids can program robots to make all sorts of dishes (Sushi, Pasta, Cakes etc.) https://youtu.be/ITWSL5lTLig This is part of a club to teach kids coding, creativity and digital literacy.

I think this is a great introduction to logical thinking and coding. The overcooked scripting layer looks awesome and very polished. Reminds me a bit of Scratch (the programming language). Are you going to make it available to others?

There are also video games based on this concept, e.g. Bots are Dumb. So maybe your scripting layer it could even become its own commercial game.

Re: Can you instruct a robot to make a PBJ sandwich?

#34
post #32

Although this is a facetious take, instructing a robot to follow recipes is a fantastic introduction to coding. I added a visual scripting layer to Overcooked so kids can program robots to make all sorts of dishes (Sushi, Pasta, Cakes etc.) https://youtu.be/ITWSL5lTLig This is part of a club to teach kids coding, creativity and digital literacy.

I think this is a great introduction to logical thinking and coding. The overcooked scripting layer looks awesome and very polished. Reminds me a bit of Scratch (the programming language). Are you going to make it available to others? There are also video games based on this concept, e.g. Bots are Dumb. So maybe your scripting layer it could even become its own commercial game.

Thanks!

Breaka Club is still very early days. Current focus is in person, but the plan is to offer an online club experience also. I'm not quite sure what that will look like just yet. Ideally yes, I'd love to make this available to others.

We're also currently building Breaka Club's own game, which is where the majority of development efforts are focused. However, since we already have the Overcooked coding experience, we haven't prioritized the visual script layer for this game just yet - it's on our roadmap.

Presently, our game is more of a cozy farming RPG / world building sandbox, with a no-code solution for world building:

https://breaka.club/blog/why-were-building-clubs-for-kids

Re: Can you instruct a robot to make a PBJ sandwich?

#35
post #29

This feel diluted compared to what it could have been. Would be better if you had a bunch of instructions and could drag them into sequence at each screen.

It's great marketing! But yes. He considers it an error to specify "Use the same knife for the jelly" even though it's considered correct to state "Wipe the knife clean before using it for jelly". The latter statement implies the former, and if you follow all the instructions both are not wrong. I also consider some of the instructions to be under specified. For example, a piece of bread could be said to have 6 sides…

I'm just annoyed I lost points for specifying both "Open the peanut butter jar" and "unscrew the lid of the peanut butter jar". The first one's context! The second "more precise" version doesn't specify what you should do with the now-unscrewed lid and the obvious solution, for a robot that takes things literally, is to leave it sitting on top of the jar.

Re: Can you instruct a robot to make a PBJ sandwich?

#36
I've spent some time thinking about this earlier as this indeed is one way a teacher would introduce a young child to programming (but by using actual bread, pb and j). An important underlying question is why kids would learn programming in the first place if they're not going to be programmers... one answer, which applies to math as well, is that it is learning another way to think. The whole point is that it is difficult to specify exact behavior, especially when you can't lean on someone's already established understanding of the world.

Another related idea (if I don't misremember) is brought forth in the book "Program or be Programmed": that it's not the programming itself but learning that things powered by software are intentionally (by meticulous instruction, like above) made to work like they do rather than just happen to work a specific way. Which hopefully leads to the realization that we have agency and can change how things work in the world, should we want to.

Now, some people are arguing for teaching kids programming via vibe coding and one the one hand I can see their point but on the other hand, it was never about the programming in the first place. Vibe coding is kind of the opposite of the two ideas if you don't first teach them. It's making the PBJ-making teacher/robot go "oh, so you want a PBJ, here's one". There's no learning new ways of thinking. It's also making it seem like things are not intentionally made to work a specific way but more just happened to become that way. Some of that empowerment and agency is lost, I feel, although I can see that there is agency in creating things too.

Re: Can you instruct a robot to make a PBJ sandwich?

#37
I get the point of this but I'm slightly annoyed that it dinged me for not telling it to pick up the knife to cut the sandwich in half when I didn't tell it to cut the sandwich in half. I don't want my PBJ cut in half. It gave me two different options for how to cut it in half and I didn't select either, so it shouldn't need the knife at that phase.

Re: Can you instruct a robot to make a PBJ sandwich?

#39
post #24
post #5

i once had this "make a PB&J" as part of a written take-home interview. i knew the schtick -- no matter how precise and complete you are, there is always the possibility for another little gotcha. and that makes it absolute rubbish for a take home because... how much detail do i need to go into to satisfy the manager reviewing this? i think i wrote a couple paragraphs and ended with a little rant about how i know how…

> how much detail do i need to go into to satisfy the manager reviewing this? it would've been fun to troll by writing the instructions on exactly which muscle to contract and extend for X seconds, and moving in an arc of Y minutes. It'd be like writing assembly code for your skeleton and muscles'.

DemBones.exe

Re: Can you instruct a robot to make a PBJ sandwich?

#40
- you made one of the biggest ux blunders they all do

- you used what looks like a radio button instead of a checkbox

- i selected one option for each question and was blown away by the fact that you could actually select more options only after the survey was complete

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