Test yourself: Arty or Techie

By fritsl
2008-09-06 13:24

**There are 2 kinds of robot builders; Arty’s & Techie’s.**

Take this test to find out what you are :)

Point = 0

1) Your robot has to navigate in a park. Do you design it to..

A) Orientate to see how far, what is ahead, somehow generate a map over the area, keep track over obstackles and good paths, drive to next point and so on

B) Focus on where you are going to, constantly avoid obstacles, but only if they are in your way

If answer = A then
point = point +1
end if

2) The fun about building robots are ..

A) That you can have an idea to a creature and see it come alive

B) That you have a reason to try math and programming techniques in real life

If answer = B then
point = point +1
end if

3) If there is a cable that has 3.7V coming out from your circuit, and you thought it should have been 5V, would you rather / typically..

A) Find out why it is 3.7V

B) Say ”that was strange”, and somehow cope with that for now

If answer = A then
point = point +1
end if

4) You have to make a robot arm that is going to take up all your socks from your drawer. Would your first thought be..

A) Find out a way to know how many socks are in the drawer, so that you know when you have picked all and is able to structure the picking.

B) Find out a way to see when the drawer is empty, and pick socks until it is empty.

If answer = A then
point = point +1
end if

5) If you should chose to be an expert in one of the 2 below, just somehow get all knowledge inserted into your brain, what would you chose:

A) Get to know 100% Picaxe Basic, Basic Stamp Basic and Arduino C – because then you could just build with ease, almost without thinking, all commands would be at your hands; If you can think on it, you can just make it..

B) 100% assambly, down to 0’s and 1’s of the chips the above based on, because then you would be able to understand it all 100%, and override the commands and optimize and write your own, which would be cool!

If answer = B then
point = point +1
end if

6) Building robots often happens alone. If you where together on a camp with 1.000’s of other builders, would you rather..

A) Participate in a group that would design something bigger, using multiple technologies.

B) Participate in a competition where you where able to enter a robot that you had made yourself.

If answer = A then
point = point +1
end if

7) After making a robot, would it make you more happy if..

A) Other robot builders where really impressed?

B) People who knows nothing about it think it is cool or fun?

If answer = A then
point = point +1
end if

Result:

0-2 points = Arty!!

3-4 points = All around!

5-7 points = Techie!!

By idaniel @ Sat, 2008-09-06 13:35

My result

5 points, so yes, I'm Techie!!

Daniel

By Christophe @ Sat, 2008-09-06 13:46

3 points - so middle of the

3 points - so middle of the road :D

By jka @ Sat, 2008-09-06 16:01

6 points.

By CaptainTuna @ Sat, 2008-09-06 16:53

3 points! :) nice test by

4 points! :) nice test by the way! Oh and you Frits get to start from 2 points because of the "if answer=a then...." :P

By BaseOverApex @ Sat, 2008-09-06 16:29

Nice one

I wonder whose sweeping statement about science-y and art-y roboteers gave you this idea?

I scored 8, I'm afraid. Must try harder next time.

By jka @ Sat, 2008-09-06 16:51

8 points out of 7??? You

8 points out of 7??? You must be an über-techie :)

By fritsl @ Sat, 2008-09-06 18:08

He is, actually!Him and JIP

He is, actually!

Him and JIP would both get 7-8 points. They are so radical!

And I would get minus zero! Radical too :)

By jip @ Sun, 2008-09-07 06:15

I actually only scored 2

I actually only scored 2 points... sorry to disappoint you :-)

By fritsl @ Sun, 2008-09-07 06:25

WHAT!?! Which (number)

WHAT!?! Which (number) questions did you make 0 in?

(I dont believe you)

By jip @ Sun, 2008-09-07 06:38

I scored points in number 3

I scored points in number 3 and number 7.

By fritsl @ Sun, 2008-09-07 06:50

Well. I know you, and so I

Well. I know you, and so I can tell that you are not honest on 1,2,4,5 & 6!

By jip @ Sun, 2008-09-07 06:53

I'm being completely honest.

I'm being completely honest. I think your questions are a bit off though indicating whether you're a techie or an arty. For instance there is no way I would go for assembly language unless I really really needed to do some optimizations that the C-compiler for arduino couldn't do.

By BaseOverApex @ Sat, 2008-09-06 19:53

Resit

I re-sat the exam and got 9 this time. I think I maybe awarded too many bonus points.

By robologist @ Sat, 2008-09-06 16:39

Hmm...

Strangely I got 2 or 3 points, but would have thought to be more techie? I like aestheticaly pleasing robots but don't often build them. Drove one guy nuts with a robot that had a rats nest of wires, but I thought the look added personality to it.

By Nick @ Sat, 2008-09-06 16:50

3 :P "and just when you

3 :P

"and just when you think your at the bottom of your hole, god hands you a shovel"

By voodoobot @ Sat, 2008-09-06 19:46

4 points, but I don't see

4 points, but I don't see how 5 is artsy vs techy...I could see if you compared a flowchart vs programming your bot.

with flowcharting you can move the command objects to form interesting shapes....

By BaseOverApex @ Sat, 2008-09-06 19:55

Moan moan moan

You're just sore you didn't make the grade! Heh heh heh. Give yourself bonus points if you feel bad about it!

By voodoobot @ Sun, 2008-09-07 00:16

lol, my score what was I

lol, my score what was I expected....I"m a mix between both...that question I refered to seemed more like a tech or tech, lets artsy aspect....

It's like asking if someone would build a site using C++ or php/rails/perl.... anyway, it seemed like both were viable techy options.. :) ...so yeah. I will give myself a point for that one...hehehe

By fritsl @ Sat, 2008-09-06 20:24

This test was made by

This test was made by someone who scored 0 in it, so it is only natural that I dont get "the other side"! Make one yourself, and let me try that :)

By robodaddy @ Sun, 2008-09-07 04:02

Here we go. Now I'm really

Here we go. Now I'm really pissed off. I've got only 1 point, trying to understand "why it is 3.7"... :)))

You know what, I've just taken this test seriously, huh, and I'd prefer "to go on until the drawer is empty"... it's just more efficient than trying to count the socks! Think about it, you need two passes instead of just one, because you need to do the job anyway! Programming (well, at least the programming I do) is all about efficiency! :)

Well, nevermind... I'm an "Arty", okey... gotta spend the rest of my weekend working on that bug we have in production... testers will be waiting for it on Monday... "Arty", huh... :))))

BTW, finished my 1st trial robot today (mechanics was the tough part for me), my kids got really excited and played with this simple thing for hours, so I'm probably going to put it into My Robots section very soon. Frits, I really appreciate the job you're doing with LMR and with promoting PICAXE... it's just awesome for rapid development, and I'm probably going to stick with it forever, until I need some complicated and super-duper fast processing. (Sorry for the off-topic.)

By fritsl @ Sun, 2008-09-07 06:02

I actually think you are

I actually think you are very "arty"!

And that may just be a compliment, you know - I get "0" in score, so you may just be my best arty friend :D

By robodaddy @ Sun, 2008-09-07 06:35

Thanks, buddy! :)

By GroG @ Sun, 2008-09-07 06:52

I like what Theo Jansen said

I like what Theo Jansen said ... "The walls between art and engineering are only in our minds"

For example if BOA's score was stored in a 8 bit array where every bit represented a point, his signed byte score would be -128!

So in reality BOA is artist, a rockin popstar artist !! Don't believe me, check this BOA and this on wikipedia

After the sex change operation, he has become an awesome engineer ... see? art, engineering, reality, it can all get blurred together ! It's all good.. :)

By fritsl @ Sun, 2008-09-07 06:57

Hey - Grog - What did you

Hey - Grog - What did you score? Honest, it is really not fun to say "PI" or 8 or whatever, tell me, what did you score, honestly?

By BaseOverApex @ Sun, 2008-09-07 14:30

Broken logic

Wait a minute. If the score was stored in an 8 bit array with each bit representing a pointm that would be 11111111. That's -1 not -128. Unless bit 0 is 1 point, bit 1 is 2 points, bit 2 is 3 points, etc, which makes it 10000000. I think somebody must have spiked your Cola.

By GroG @ Sun, 2008-09-07 15:24

Arrggh ! - dang it your

Arrggh ! - dang it your right -1 ... I liked it better when you were an artist :D

By GroG @ Sun, 2008-09-07 07:00

What does it matter Fritsy?

What does it matter Fritsy? - this sounds very left brain of you ... like your statistical engineering side wants to pigeon-hole me :) - Are you sure you got a 0 on the test?

By fritsl @ Sun, 2008-09-07 07:13

You and BOA, you guys just

You and BOA, you guys just cannot answer questions without being "funny"! What is it that you are afraid of, I wonder? Being like the rest of us?

By BaseOverApex @ Sun, 2008-09-07 14:23

Honest answer?

I'd have to say "yes" and I'm not being funny.

By GroG @ Sun, 2008-09-07 07:58

I got a whopping 1 and

I got a whopping 1 and that's cause I chose A & B on the first question...

Not afraid at all - but multiple choice is lacking of much insight - so I filled it out more ;)

1) Your robot has to navigate in a park. Do you design it to..
A & B - why wouldn't you have it do both if possible? Just because you can avoid the rock in front of you doesn't mean you will be able to navigate to the store down the street - you would need to do both. (+0 +1)

2) The fun about building robots are ..
A far out weighs B - maybe its i want to give birth to something, womb envy ... i dunno ... but i think nearly all roboteurs would lean this way - picture here somes it up. http://letsmakerobots.com/node/827#comment-4209 (+0)

3) If there is a cable that has 3.7V coming out from your circuit, and you thought it should have been 5V, would you rather / typically..
B - but knowing my luck the 3.7 volts burns up something expensive - so i kick myself in the ass after that happens and wish I chose A (+0)

4) You have to make a robot arm that is going to take up all your socks from your drawer. Would your first thought be..
(neither) - Make a robot arm strong enough to take the drawer out and dump everything out - if its this strong you can use it for other fun things too (+0)

5) If you should chose to be an expert in one of the 2 below, just somehow get all knowledge inserted into your brain, what would you chose:
A - I'd probably go with A cause I'm pretty lazy and higher level languages let you do more with less, but at the same time I like B because I like to know how things work (+0)

6) Building robots often happens alone. If you where together on a camp with 1.000’s of other builders, would you rather..
Don't see how this relates to Artsy vs Techy - this is more do you prefer to work by yourself or with others. (You can be Artsy or Techy with either) I have had the great opportunity to work with others on an Art project a couple times, although I typically work by myself - this is more a personal or social preference

7) After making a robot, would it make you more happy if..
Neither - most of my happiness is usually derived from making the thing - like spawning life, or in the process of making it, discovering how the simple things i take for granted every day are so much more amazingly complex and simple at the same time ... it ..just .. well, just blows me away..

Alright .. now you got me all philosophical,
time for a beer and a cat.