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Can you instruct a robot to make a PBJ sandwich?

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

#41
post #7

It’s funny, when I’ve seen this demonstrated, it’s basically literally impossible to get the right result because the test maker doesn’t define an instruction set that you can rely on. They will deliberately screw up whatever instructions you give them no matter how detailed. A computer has a defined ISA that is specified in terms of behavior. A compiler transforms a language with higher level abstractions into this…

Oh I think this lesson teaches quite a lot. Maybe your instructor is deliberately screwing up, but perhaps other end users are just not paying attention, or are missing assumed knowledge, or are feeling particularly adversarial on the day they need to follow your instructions. One of many lessons that can be taken away from this exercise is to understand your audience and challenge the assumptions you make about thei…

I suppose. My original comment should have been “doesn’t teach you how to program.” It would be great to do it the normal way first, then point out that it’s impossible to do without a contract of behavior in place, then start creating that instruction set and building up from there. It is in fact possible to program computers, so this method would teach what makes programming possible.

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

#42
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…

Come on, a real engineer would come back the next day with a robot that makes sandwiches ;-).
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