hackertube.io

Exact Instructions Challenge - THIS is why my kids hate me. | Josh Darnit

Josh Darnit · demo · Watch on YouTube

Education & learningArts & entertainment (other)

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.

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.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2017, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “I thought it was a great segue into technical thinking for young kids.”

    Segue into technical thinking for young kids.

    zyang, 2017-02 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?”

  2. “this video is a great way to show how difficult it is to teach a machine to do something and how clear instructions can help get things done”

    Shows how hard it is to teach a machine and why clear instructions help.

    srirangr, 2019-04 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: How to Teach Coding?”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: pb&j, algorithms, teaching kids, requirements, literal interpretation

Also recommended by the same people