Comments on: A Quick Puzzle From OSCON

By: Paul H

Paul H — Thu, 08 May 2014 21:37:33 +0000

Hi, I just discovered your podcast today. I listened to several episodes and really enjoyed them. But it looks like you haven’t had any new episodes since 2012. Do you have any plans to produce more episodes?

By: MathFan

MathFan — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 01:00:31 +0000

I think you are right. I hadn’t watched the video before but I think part of it was the limited amount of time allowed, plus perhaps the peer pressure of seeing others raising their hands. And you presented it all in one paragraph where he presented it with pauses and pictures which I found distracted from the puzzle.

By: Chakolate

Chakolate — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:54:59 +0000

I don’t know how to hide a spoiler, but it seems to me there are only two cases, and in both there’s a programmer looking at a non-programmer.

By: jyoak

jyoak — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:49:50 +0000

MathFan, you're right. And it does seem fairly obvious now, but through some strange hypnotism, Paul made nearly every single one of us miss it. Part of that is that both the context of a puzzle site and my mentioning that people got it wrong lead to deeper thinking. In the moment, I guess we were tempted to casually accept the surface appearance instead of thinking.

By: MathFan

MathFan — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:43:19 +0000

My answer is given below: [spoiler]I would have raised my hand for “Yes”. If Betty is a *non-programmer*, then Albert is looking at her which satisfies the condidtion. On the other hand, if Betty is a *programmer*, then she is looking at Charlie who is a non-programmer. In either case, there is a computer programmer looking at a non-computer programmer. Am I missing something? Seems pretty obvious.[/spoiler]