Taking instructions literally

 | 2 min

A couple of weeks back, I was at a loss as to what to get the students to do for a lab exercise on reading and writing files, so I decided to get the students to write some basic (non-personal) information about themselves to a text file.

These were the instructions I gave them:

When the user clicks a button, you should display a Save file dialog. If the user doesn't cancel the dialog, you should write the following information to the file on three separate lines: your favourite movie, favourite singer/group and favourite TV program.

Some students did this without a problem. Some favourite movies include Titanic, Mission Impossible, Shawshank Redemption, and Ice Age (a popular favourite). Popular TV shows include the Simpsons, Friends and Lost, and James Blunt was the standout singer, although one student favoured his own singing ability.

My own example solution to the problem was this:

writer.WriteLine("Raiders of the Lost Ark")

writer.WriteLine("Blackhawk")

writer.WriteLine("CSI")

Imagine how shocked I was to discover that FOUR students shared the _exact _same taste as me in movies, music and TV! It seemed they used the solutions (given at the start of the lab so they can peer-mark) to "correct" their exercises before they submitted them. Needless to say, they were strongly warned not to do that again.

However, I was even more concerned by the fact that SIX students submitted this as a solution:

writer.WriteLine("Your Favourite Movie") writer.WriteLine("Your Favourite Singer/Group ") writer.WriteLine("Your Favourite TV Program")

Talk about taking the instructions literally.

To combat this tendency, next time I did a similar exercise with the Microsoft Agent character, I made a bit of a song and dance about how they should include their own person favourite things, not just the words. These were the instructions I gave:

  1. Agent says "My favourite book is [your favourite book]" (And by [your favourite book] I do mean YOUR actual favourite book, NOT just the words "your favourite book")
  2. Agent thinks "My favourite drink is [your favourite drink]" (Again, by [your favourite drink] I do mean YOUR actual favourite drink, NOT just the words "your favourite drink")

This time, the quality was much higher. Favourite books include Harry Potter, 1984, Gone with the Wind, Rich Dad Poor Dad and the Holy Quran. Favourite drinks include water (strangely common), orange juice, pearl tea, sprite, beer and 'a good quality single malt'.

However, there is always one dumbass:

agent.Speak("My favourite book is [your favourite book]") agent.Speak("I do mean YOUR actual favourite book, NOT just the words ""your favourite book") agent.Think("My favourite drink is [your favourite drink]") agent.Speak("I do mean YOUR actual favourite drink, NOT just the words ""your favourite drink")

I really really wish that I could believe she was just taking the piss. I'd even like to believe that she was just lazy and did a copy and paste. But I only gave the instructions out on paper. She actually typed the entire thing in exactly. She really is that dumb :(