Could You Do This?

The Lindy Hop, a form of western swing dance

What if we slow things down a little?

Cincinatti Lou

Thinking Slowly

Slow Down

Slow Down

What was Edgerton's Secret?

A very short flash at just the right moment.

And for slow motion video, a lot of very quick flashes in a sequence.

It's almost like decomposition
in time

Lessons from Lindy Beige's Video?

1. Slow down
2. Literally take things one step at a time
3. Decompose larger problems into smaller problems
4. Hide the detail of low level solutions so you can think about higher level logic
5. Use abstraction to get a handle on things (e.g., type A and type B steps)

Lots More of Low Level Pieces

Musical Refresher: four beats to a bar

Challenge
Choreography a 32 Bar Routine

Break the Problem Down

Further Refinement

Refine Down to Step-Level

Just Learning to Adjust Focus

Stepwise Dinner

Stepwise Refinement
will take us
from this→

It's just 
some food, 
some games, and some dancing. 
No biggie.

To this→

Let's Brainstorm

cheese

menu

chop veggies

toothpicks

rap

jazz

DJ

menu

appetizers

plates

forks

table cloth

board games

napkins

cards

chicken

kebabs

cleanup

shopping

spices

invites

games

condiments

snacks

cook

food

music

rock

Some Hierarchy Helps

STEPWISE REFINEMENT
HELPS
EVEN
MORE

Guest Lecture! Donald Knuth

Black Boxes

Black Boxes Are Everywhere

What Did I Do?

To look up "concatenate" in the dictionary I open the dictionary to about the middle and look at the page. Determine whether the target word is in front, behind, or actually on the page I am looking at. If it is on this page, scan until I find it. If it is in front of this page I take the pages of the first half of the dictionary and let them fall open to about the middle.  I look at the page I am on and if the target word is there I scan to locate it. Otherwise I figure out if it is in front of behind where I am. I then repeat this technique for the pages in front or behind.

What Did I Do?

1. select a page about midway through the dictionary
2. determine if target word is before, on, or after this page
3. if on this page, scan to word, and you are done.
4. hold pages in front or behind as appropriate
5. select a page about midway through
6. repeat from step 2 above

What Did I Do?

split pages about half-way
if target word on page
   done
otherwise if before
              grab front half of pages
          else
              grab back half of pages
repeat

Instruct a Robot to Find the Largest Card

The robot can only

Point at the cards as card1, card2, etc.

Read the value of a card.

Remember things.

Compare things.

Q&A