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This is a puzzle that everyone gets intuitively, but formulating the error exactly is still a good learning exercise. Maybe a good interview question?

logicallee 9y ago
I found it!! The elusive source of it all! Here, ladies and gentleman, you can see the birth of the exact thought: "Hey I just read this really obscure article on something I've never heard of in school or used in my professional life, and didn't have to figure out for myself. I bet it would make a great interview question."
- pavlov 9y ago
  You don't deserve the downvotes because that seems to be the exact thought process here: an interview is not about what the candidate can do, but how [s]he responds to weird gotchas.
- empath75 9y ago
  I think questions along these lines are good questions if they're explicitly told that they aren't expected to know the answer or get it right. For a counter intuitive question, I'd ask what their gut answer was first, and then see how they react to being told that it's wrong. Do they question the premise? Try to work it out? Ask you to explain? Waste time trying to prove that their answer was the right one? All of those things will give you an idea of what their personality is like. Ideally I'd want them to clarify the question to make sure they understood it, start trying to work it out with half remembered math from school, ask for some hints, and maybe get it right eventually, or at least wave in the general direction of how they think it could be solved. I don't care if they end up being totally wrong in the end, as long as they demonstrate some ability to think methodically. Of course you could get similar information by asking them to troubleshoot a broken script or something like that. You'd probably be better off asking if they'd prefer a logic puzzle or a troubleshooting task.
glangdale 9y ago
No, unless familiarity with these problems is assumed to be mandatory. People who inherently 'get' the Monty Hall problem on their first try are of course superior beings with a better intuitive grasp of everything (I kid, I kid) but using these sort of questions gives an enormous advantage to those who have seen it before. Unless you're testing for 'exposure to geek culture', I would avoid.
- petters 9y ago
  This wasn't the Monty Hall problem, though. The hypothetical interview question would be about putting something simple into words.

logicallee 9y ago

I found it!! The elusive source of it all! Here, ladies and gentleman, you can see the birth of the exact thought: "Hey I just read this really obscure article on something I've never heard of in school or used in my professional life, and didn't have to figure out for myself. I bet it would make a great interview question."

pavlov 9y ago
You don't deserve the downvotes because that seems to be the exact thought process here: an interview is not about what the candidate can do, but how [s]he responds to weird gotchas.
empath75 9y ago
I think questions along these lines are good questions if they're explicitly told that they aren't expected to know the answer or get it right. For a counter intuitive question, I'd ask what their gut answer was first, and then see how they react to being told that it's wrong. Do they question the premise? Try to work it out? Ask you to explain? Waste time trying to prove that their answer was the right one? All of those things will give you an idea of what their personality is like. Ideally I'd want them to clarify the question to make sure they understood it, start trying to work it out with half remembered math from school, ask for some hints, and maybe get it right eventually, or at least wave in the general direction of how they think it could be solved. I don't care if they end up being totally wrong in the end, as long as they demonstrate some ability to think methodically. Of course you could get similar information by asking them to troubleshoot a broken script or something like that. You'd probably be better off asking if they'd prefer a logic puzzle or a troubleshooting task.

glangdale 9y ago

No, unless familiarity with these problems is assumed to be mandatory. People who inherently 'get' the Monty Hall problem on their first try are of course superior beings with a better intuitive grasp of everything (I kid, I kid) but using these sort of questions gives an enormous advantage to those who have seen it before. Unless you're testing for 'exposure to geek culture', I would avoid.

petters 9y ago
This wasn't the Monty Hall problem, though. The hypothetical interview question would be about putting something simple into words.