Leaky Abstractions IRL

Even more leaky abstractions talk! This time Huiqi and I give examples of leaky abstractions that happen in real life, as in outside of coding. Enjoy!

Transcript

The following transcript was automatically generated by an algorithm.

00:00 : let's talk about this one first elite
00:02 : abstractions
00:04 : um in real life in real life as in
00:08 : not not programming can you think of any
00:11 : examples
00:12 : well i guess what i was thinking it's
00:15 : like the car
00:16 : like how the car works because
00:19 : it's really complicated internally
00:22 : but as a driver i just press the gas and
00:25 : brake
00:26 : and the steering wheel and that's it
00:30 : but but i don't know what's going on
00:33 : internally like for example if you drive
00:35 : a manual you
00:36 : have to like uh switch the gears but you
00:39 : can
00:39 : switch uh in a automatic so
00:42 : it's it's switching the gear internally
00:44 : but if
00:46 : but you i don't as a driver i don't
00:48 : really know how it works
00:50 : so i might encounter some situation that
00:53 : i can
00:54 : have full control over like say if i
00:58 : go um on like a whatever
01:01 : like uh like a slope or whatever i can't
01:04 : like lower down the gear but even in a
01:07 : manual
01:08 : uh situation there are still a lot of
01:10 : things that i can't control
01:12 : so we have a very simple interface yep
01:15 : exactly it is an abstraction a car is an
01:18 : abstraction
01:19 : as they designed it for the driver
01:23 : the car the user interface of the car
01:26 : um or maybe call it the driver
01:29 : interface um that's an abstraction of
01:32 : what a car is um
01:36 : am i in my electric car my electric
01:40 : vehicle uh i i drive a leaf
01:44 : they actually have this mode that make
01:47 : it even simpler for you they have this
01:51 : e-paddle e-pedal mode i don't use it
01:54 : because i don't find and need to but
01:58 : i could use it right and i have tried it
02:00 : before and if you turn
02:02 : on e pedal mode then
02:07 : when you step on the gas pedal it goes
02:11 : when you lift your foot up it stops
02:15 : so you only need one pedal to control
02:17 : the car instead of two
02:20 : and that's even simpler i like it it's
02:22 : like a golf cart basically
02:24 : they turn my car into a golf cart okay
02:27 : let me talk about my example
02:29 : ordering a sandwich okay
02:32 : uh from uh panera bread
02:35 : so we were ordering a sandwich from
02:37 : panera bread and it was
02:39 : close to their closing time and
02:42 : uh and they were running out of these
02:46 : special types of breads it's like we
02:50 : don't have this type of bread anymore
02:52 : which is
02:53 : the kind that are supposed to be used
02:56 : for your sandwich that you ordered
02:59 : but we have this other bread and this
03:01 : other one and this other one
03:03 : all of the names are long and italian
03:06 : sounding
03:07 : and i i could not remember but anyway
03:10 : they just said i don't i don't have
03:12 : thread a
03:13 : anymore but i have b c d and e
03:17 : was like uh okay i don't know which one
03:20 : to choose like all those names
03:21 : make no sense to me i didn't say that
03:24 : but i felt like
03:26 : you know i felt i felt dumb right for
03:28 : not
03:29 : knowing the names of the breads and
03:32 : not knowing what to choose like am i
03:34 : supposed to know about all these kinds
03:36 : of breads and what they are
03:38 : and i felt you know you know that moment
03:41 : when
03:42 : you feel like you're the idiot and you
03:44 : don't know
03:45 : the things you're supposed to know and i
03:47 : felt a little bit like that
03:49 : i think i just said white bread the
03:50 : first time like
03:52 : uh the white bread that sounds like a
03:54 : bread that i know okay white white bread
03:58 : and then the second time it was like oh
04:00 : yeah
04:01 : i don't have this kind of bread he said
04:03 : it's for three
04:04 : different people like three different
04:07 : people
04:07 : including me all had the problem of
04:11 : you know the bread ran out and then but
04:14 : he asked a different
04:15 : guy first and then and then he actually
04:18 : showed
04:19 : the other available bread to the that
04:22 : guy
04:22 : and that guy said okay i'll just get
04:24 : that one and then i just said
04:25 : yeah i'll get the same one that he's
04:27 : having
04:29 : so so it was a case that where
04:32 : normally when you're just ordering a
04:34 : sandwich you don't know
04:36 : you don't know what it's made of uh it
04:39 : is only when something
04:40 : goes wrong and now you're like you're
04:43 : being
04:43 : asked to learn more about
04:46 : what the thing is made of before you can
04:49 : actually get what you need
04:52 : right yeah you you just have these
04:55 : default options so normally you just
04:57 : choose what they offer like uh like a
05:00 : mode
05:01 : like you just choose mode a mode b mode
05:03 : c but if the one of the mode doesn't
05:06 : work
05:06 : or you want it customized you're like oh
05:09 : how do i do this
05:10 : you need to know the internals yeah you
05:13 : know the internet and another very vivid
05:15 : example
05:16 : is uh when you're driving using a
05:20 : navigation system right yeah
05:23 : because normally you're just a slave
05:27 : to the navigation system like all you're
05:30 : doing is
05:31 : doing what it says or you're following
05:33 : the line
05:35 : um or when they say turn left you turn
05:37 : left and so forth
05:39 : but sometimes it doesn't work out right
05:41 : sometimes you you get to the destination
05:45 : and it's like wait this is not the
05:48 : destination
05:49 : what happened that i'm sure that has
05:52 : happened to everyone right has it
05:54 : happened to you before
05:56 : sure yeah i would i was in denver
05:59 : at some point it was like late at night
06:01 : and the google map took me to like
06:03 : somewhere in the middle of nowhere
06:04 : like without lights i was like where is
06:07 : this place
06:08 : yeah and i just drive randomly until it
06:11 : picks up again
06:12 : like i just go somewhere else but it's
06:15 : i think it's a bug but yeah and
06:19 : sometimes yeah there's definitely bugs
06:21 : in google maps
06:22 : recently more buggy to me but
06:25 : but other times it's like you go it
06:27 : tells you to go through this road and
06:29 : the road is blocked
06:30 : so what do you do then uh and another
06:34 : thing is sometimes it
06:36 : sometimes it thinks you made the wrong
06:38 : turn
06:39 : when in fact you did make the right turn
06:42 : so it's like
06:43 : boo boom ah now it's gonna reroute you
06:46 : and you're like whoa whoa whoa whoa what
06:50 : it's like it's sensors or this gps
06:52 : sensor is too sensitive
06:54 : or something that it thought you made
06:57 : the wrong turn
06:58 : when in fact you're still on the correct
07:01 : road
07:02 : and and it rerouted you immediately
07:04 : another case where it can happen
07:06 : is your your phone just died
07:10 : and now yeah and i if you if you didn't
07:12 : do any homework you you have no idea
07:15 : where you are
07:16 : like you're like what do you do now
07:19 : what if that actually happened to me
07:21 : once when i was driving my kid
07:23 : to like a basketball summer camp
07:27 : and i've never been to that place
07:30 : and then and then like a few minutes
07:32 : from the destination my phone died
07:35 : and uh i i kind of saw that
07:39 : my battery was slow so so what i did was
07:42 : i kind of like
07:44 : did a little at the studying of the map
07:47 : before
07:48 : before it died and so i know
07:51 : like approximately where it should be
07:54 : and maybe what to look for
07:56 : and eventually i was able to find it
08:00 : based on that little homework that i did
08:04 : so yeah but but that's that that's the
08:08 : sort of uh digging one level lower
08:12 : right that that little homework that i
08:13 : did that's equivalent to
08:16 : i i just needed to move one level down
08:18 : to
08:19 : to to understand what's going on yeah
08:23 : well normally i just have a cord to
08:26 : charge it
08:27 : right yeah i could have done that too
08:29 : but if i don't
08:30 : i'm i'm very absent-minded