You’re talking about what vs. how, but imperative vs. pure-functional is both about the how, not the what. When you’re explaining someone how to sort physical

You’re talking about what vs. how, but imperative vs. pure-functional is both about the how, not the what. When you’re explaining someone how to sort physical objects, they will think in terms of “okay I’ll do x [a physical mutable state change] and then I’ll have achieved physical state y, and then I’ll do z (etc.)”.