How do hackers drive?

Terry Lambert tlambert2 at mindspring.com
Sat Nov 1 13:10:14 PST 2003


Bill Moran wrote:
> When I am about to go somewhere in the car, I take a moment or two to
> plan out the optimal route to get to my various destinations.

I use destination proximity planning, so te last leg is provisional;
for example, last night I went up to San Francisco, and there was a
chemical spill that blocked the left two lanes of 280 North, near
Belmont.  Hearing about the spill on the radio, I was able to alter
my route and avoid unreasonable delays.  If I had planned every inch,
then any deviation from the route would have been impossible, unless
I already knew the area well (which is not always possible on things
like long trips).


> If there are multiple destinations, I usually do a little thinking
> to determine what order to visit these destinations in order to make
> optimal use of my time.

Travelling salesman problem.  People familiar with the problem (CS,
graph theory, actual travelling salesmen, etc.) tend to do this;
other people do not tend to perceive it as a problem.


> This is usually modified by the desire to choose a route that includes the
> fewest number of left turns possible (since right turns are cheaper than
> left turns, time-wise, and complexity-wise - you can make a right turn on
> red for crying out loud)
> 
> Other programmers drive this way as well, correct?

Not entirely.  8-).


> The revelation is that I'm starting to understand that many non-programmer
> _don't_ generally evaluate their car trips like this.  I mean, I know that
> most people will plan out a route when they're going on a long trip, but
> this planning procedure occurs _every_ time I get in the car, even if I'm
> just going to the convenience store for some chips (I have to evaluate the
> fact that there are two convenience stores equaldistance from here, one is
> a less complex journey, while the other has a better selection!)

Most programmers do not drive this way.  They compute the result
once, and then use a cached copy for subsequent trips.  8-) 8-).

-- Terry


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