And this will be a two
part exercise as well.
And the first goal at
hand is for you to choose.
Do you want to go first or dad, is it?
Would you like your dad to go first?
DAVID: OK.
I'll go first.
DAVID MALAN: You're going to go first.
All right.
So come on over here.
And what I'm going to show David in
just a moment is an image on the screen
that I'm going to ask that
he program you, the audience,
to draw giving verbal instructions only.
The goal of which is for him
to be as precise as possible
and as correct as possible to compel
the audience, much like a computer,
to follow his instructions.
And in turn, implement your algorithm.
So in just a moment, David
is going to rattle off step
by step instructions for having
everyone in the audience draw this.
You are the only one that
can see what's on the screen.
Everyone in the audience just about has
a piece of paper and a pen or pencil.
And I just need you very
confidently, clearly,
to recite step by step instructions by
which everyone with their pen or pencil
can draw what you see
on the screen here.
Makes sense?
DAVID: Yes.
DAVID MALAN: You may use any
verbal instructions you like.
DAVID: OK.
DAVID MALAN: All right.
Just about ready to begin?
The goal, precision correctness.
Begin.
DAVID: OK.
Step 1.
Draw a sideways square.
[LAUGHTER]
Sideways.
45 degrees rotated.
Yeah.
DAVID MALAN: OK.
DAVID: From the bottom three
corners, draw a straight line down
that's approximately the length
of each side of the square.
DAVID MALAN: Unfortunately, programs
cannot ask questions of programmer.
So we continue on with the next step.
DAVID: And finally, between
the first and second line,
draw a line connecting
the two at the end.
And between the second and third
line, draw a line connecting the end.
DAVID MALAN: All right.
How do you feel about your instructions?
Precise and correct?
DAVID: Wishy-washy.
DAVID MALAN: Wishy-washy.
OK.
All right.
So let's go ahead.
Hang on to the mic for just a moment.
I'm going to hop down into
the audience with our TFs just
to grab a few representative solutions.
If you wouldn't mind my
grabbing a few sheets of paper
from folks who have participated.
Let me take a few over
here, just a random sample.
Welcome to volunteer proactively
or keep it to yourself.
Let me go in over here.
OK.
Thank you so much.
Any takers over here?
OK.
All right.
Good.
Thank you.
And all right.
The TFs are grabbing a couple too.
See some over here.
All right.
That should do.
Let me grab these from
Brian over here and Emma.
Oh, those are blank.
All right.
So I think we have plenty over here.
So let's take a look before we
do part two of two, if I may,
at how well David
programmed the audience.
I'm going to go ahead in
just a moment and pull up
a projection of some of
these drawings here that
are the results of these operations.
So let me flip through.
Get a sample here.
And I see a lot of good options here.
I see this picture here, which
perhaps resembles what you drew.
See this one here the top
corner, very similar in spirit.
This one left a lot of
room for other things but--
[LAUGHTER]
This one was a little
more abstract, if I may.
[LAUGHTER]
And so, let me go over to a
spoiler to show you what it
is David was programming you to draw.
And with some suspense,
he was compelling you
to draw we hope this here.
All right.
So close or not close perhaps.
All right.
Round of applause for
David, if we could.
[APPLAUSE]
DAVID MALAN: Thank you.
One moment.
And so, you gave pretty--
you used, if you would,
abstractions in discussing this.
You said a sideways square,
used 45 degree angles
hoping that folks would presumably
know what you mean by that.
Why did you not just say
draw a cube, for instance?
DAVID: I thought that would be cheating.
DAVID MALAN: OK.
Well, it would not have
been cheating, but it would
have been a wonderful abstraction.
If everyone in the room,
assuming, knows what in a cube is,
you might then be compelled
to draw it quite quickly.
But that, too, leaves
ambiguity and lacks precision.
Well, how is the cube oriented?
Is it this way?
Is it that way?
Is a curved this way?
So sometimes, these abstractions
aren't sufficiently helpful.
So I probably would have
done what you did as well.
Now let's do one other
example here, if we could.
I'm going to go ahead in just a moment
and project an image onto the screen
that everyone in the audience
can see except you two.
Let me go ahead and re
angle this a little bit.
And if father and son would like
to get together or solo draw
a picture that the audience is
going to tell you how to draw.
So we're going to flip the roles now.
You all will see the
drawing on the screen.
We ask that you tell our
volunteers what to draw.
You can use any words that you want,
but you cannot ask questions and no
physical gestures to explain.
All right.
Unfortunately, it's a little
hard technologically here
in that the solution
is going to be there.
The solution is going to be there.
So we're going to have to put
some visors on you, if we could--
[LAUGHTER]
--so that you can only
see straight forward.
And if you don't mind hugging
the board as close as possible,
but occasionally back up so that
people can see what you're drawing,
but resist the temptation to
look up, over left or right.
All right.
So for our audience then, the images.
And if you two could focus
only on the board now.
Only on the board and definitely
not facing that screen.
OK.
[LAUGHTER]
The audience is about to
see the picture in question.
And so, we need a volunteer
first from the audience
to call out an instruction.
Any step ones?
Over here.
Make a circle.
[LAUGHTER]
I heard a small--
I heard draw a smaller circle.
I didn't hear use the eraser, but OK.
OK.
No looking at me.
All right.
So I'll take a third step.
So let's go to someone else.
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: Draw a vertical line.
DAVID MALAN: Draw a vertical line.
AUDIENCE: From the center of the circle.
DAVID MALAN: From the
center of the circle.
AUDIENCE: From the bottom
of the circle and down.
DAVID MALAN: From the bottom
of the circle and down.
AUDIENCE: Large stick figure
that appears to be walking.
[LAUGHTER]
DAVID MALAN: I hear an abstraction.
So we were also given
a fourth instruction.
Draw a stick figure that appears
to be walking, if that helps.
But I think we're going to
need to be more precise here
because I can imagine a stick figure
doing multiple things in multiple--
[LAUGHTER]
With--
[LAUGHTER]
OK.
Maybe step five.
Do we want to make any tweaks?
AUDIENCE: It's an almost
upside down triangle.
DAVID MALAN: Draw an almost
upside down triangle, I heard.
AUDIENCE: For the legs.
DAVID MALAN: Through the legs.
AUDIENCE: For the legs.
DAVID MALAN: For the legs.
AUDIENCE: After the
vertical line coming down.
AUDIENCE: You need to erase the legs.
DAVID MALAN: OK.
I heard erase the legs.
AUDIENCE: Get rid of the arms.
DAVID MALAN: And get rid of the arms.
[LAUGHTER]
OK and step five was?
AUDIENCE: From the bottom of
the vertical line, the body,
make the two legs are like a
triangle without the bottom.
DAVID MALAN: From the
bottom of the body,
draw like a triangle
to represent the legs.
AUDIENCE: But not--
[LAUGHTER]
DAVID MALAN: But not that way.
That's good.
Let's move on to step six.
Step six.
Someone over here.
AUDIENCE: So once they
erase that triangle,
from the bottom of the
vertical line, draw
an upside V, where the
center of the V is touching
the bottom of that bottom line.
DAVID MALAN: From the bottom of the
straight line, draw an upside down V.
I think we did that.
Can you step aside just
so the audience can see?
Now we have a tripod.
OK.
[LAUGHTER]
OK.
So I think we're there.
I think we're there.
One other instruction.
Let's see if we can take this home.
Yes, right here.
AUDIENCE: Draw a less than symbol,
starting from the base of the middle
of the circle.
DAVID MALAN: Draw a less
than symbol from the base
of the middle of the end of
the circle on the left side.
DAVID: Wait, a less than symbol.
DAVID MALAN: Less than symbol.
Yep.
DAVID: Less than.
DAVID MALAN: Yes.
DAVID: Here?
DAVID MALAN: So this is
what we call a condition.
So, yes.
AUDIENCE: Correct.
DAVID MALAN: Correct, I hear.
OK.
I think we're close.
Two more steps, maybe.
AUDIENCE: To the top of the
circle, write the word Hi
with a capital H and lowercase I.
DAVID MALAN: OK.
From the top left of the head, draw the
word hi, capital H lowercase I with--
I think did you say a line to it?
AUDIENCE: Yes, with a line.
DAVID MALAN: With a line to it.
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID MALAN: OK.
And can you step aside, just
so the audience can see?
I think we need just one more step.
One more step.
OK.
Back here.
AUDIENCE: From the bottom of the
circle on the right hand side--
DAVID MALAN: From the bottom of
the circle on the right hand side--
AUDIENCE: --touching the base of the
circle and the vertical line going
down--
DAVID MALAN: --touching the base of
the circle and the vertical line going
down--
AUDIENCE: --make the letter L--
DAVID MALAN: --make the letter L--
AUDIENCE: --at a 15 degree angle.
DAVID MALAN: I heard
at a 15 degree angle?
Sure.
[LAUGHTER]
OK.
I think-- I think could we have you
take several steps back and look up?
And round of applause
for our volunteers.
[APPLAUSE]
