Exact Instructions Challenge - THIS is why my kids hate me. | Josh Darnit
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it to teach kids computational thinking and as a joke whenever specs, requirements, or LLM prompts are taken too literally.
What it is
A family video in which kids write instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a parent follows them exactly as written, with comic results. It demonstrates how precise instructions must be.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2017 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends zyang · 2017-02 · on “Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?”
Have you seen the exact instruction challenge on youtube? I thought it was a great segue into technical thinking for young kids. [this video]
Recommends srirangr · 2019-04 · on “Ask HN: How to Teach Coding?”
1. Tell them what to do but do not tell them how to do it. (Just give a few pointers otherwise they'll be lost.) 2. Give them a playground to fail - Offload any non-business critical tasks and let them make mistakes. No one I know ever learnt programming without making any mistakes. Immediately tell them about best practices and how to avoid such mistakes in future. 3. Show them the impact of their work - There's nothing more motivating than seeing the impact of one's work. 4. Build curiosity - Answer as many questions as you can answer. Admit when you don't know any answers and start looking it up on the web right in front of them. People pick habits by looking at their superiors. If it's a
Cites ygra · 2018-08 · on “CS Unplugged: Computer Science Without a Computer”
I've seen this video a while ago, where a father does this with his kids: [this video] Lots of frustration about the stupid robot and I guess your school kids weren't much different.
Cites godelski · 2025-06 · on “Qwen VLo: From “Understanding” the World to “Depicting” It”
As a ML researcher and a degree holding physicist, I'm really hesitant to use the words "understanding" and "describing" (much less hesitant) around these models. I don't find the language helpful and think it's mostly hateful tbh. The reason we use math in physics is because of its specificity. The same reason coding is so hard [0,1]. I think people aren't giving themselves enough credit here for how much they (you) understand about things. It is the nuances that really matter. There's so much detail here and we often forget how important they are because it is just normal to us. It's like forgetting about the ground you walk upon. I think something everyone should read about is Asimov's "R