The other day I had to give a delivery driver instructions on how to find our site in the park. Fortunately, I had already been thinking about how to tell friends and family how to find us so he got here just fine. It doesn’t always work that way, though.
I once had a friend give me directions to her house but she forgot to tell me I needed to jog left at one point to end up on her street. She was thrilled when I actually arrived. Because I had been up that street before to a different destination I automatically took that jog. It doesn’t always work that way, either.
My favorite story about giving directions happen to a bunch of computer programmers. They participated in a team building exercise where they were to write direction for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They were told the table held a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly, a plate, and a knife.
We could all do that, right? Try it. I’ll wait for you.
Hmm. Hmm.
La la.
Dum diddly dum.
Ready? Let’s see what happened.
One employee was chosen to pretend to be a computer and follow the directions exactly as written.
One set said remove two slices of bread from the loaf. The computer could not do it. The loaf had no opening through which to remove the bread.
Another set got the bread open OK and put the slices on a plate. Then it said to pick up the jar of peanut butter and open it then pick up the knife. Couldn’t do it. Jar in one hand, lid in the other, no hand available to pick up the knife.
Another set gave all the correct instructions right up through spreading the peanut butter on the bread and setting everything down. Then it said repeat the steps that gave instructions for the peanut butter except using the jelly. So the computer picked up the jelly, opened it, put the lid down, picked up the knife, used the knife to get some jelly, spread it on the bread and set everything down. Then it picked up the jelly and stopped. It was trying to repeat the directions from the peanut butter section but there was no lid to remove. Every computer programmer will tell you a repeat command needs to be followed by a stop command.
So how did you do with your instructions?
What else would you like to give us directions for doing?
TTYL,
Linda
I was the one waiting for you to finish making that sandwich and send it to me via email. I’m still waiting.
When I was teaching, one year this was the first-day ice breaker. We had to explain how to draw something. After each group did the exercise, we exchanged papers and tried to follow another group’s instructions. What a hoot!
Need to go and get something to eat. You made me hungry.