On Sufficient Precision

LV

2024.07.14

Hackers complete the task at hand with sufficient precision, whether or not they create software or make a golf cart levitate.

Levitation

This morning, I wrote half of a post on starfish regeneration and recursion. However, I then helped my Uncle stack a golf cart on top of two pallets on a trailer and decided to write about that instead. 

While getting a golf cart on a trailer is trivial, it becomes complex when you have a one foot jump from the base of the trailer’s ramp to the top of the pallets already at the floor of the trailer. Of course, we didn’t have a crane, or the ability to make the golf cart levitate. So, my uncle had us take the path of least resistance by building a ramp. We screwed two 2x6’s to the top of the higher pallet and let their bases rest on the driveway.

The way he was able to do so quickly and effectively was beyond impressive. I would describe what he did as leveraging “Sufficient Precision,” something that requires not only understanding exactly how to do something perfectly, but when and where it is okay for the solution to not be perfect. 

He was able to break the task into parts, quickly dispatch each with the precision needed to get the job done, and then focus on simply driving the golf cart up the ramp.

In other words, I he’s a hacker.

Math is Everything

After we put the pallets in the trailer, which required some impromptu trimming, we went over to the golf cart to do some quick math. This part, of course, required perfect precision, as it outlined the ideal solution, so to speak—this was the root of the rest. 

First, we measured the distance between the outside of each golf cart wheel to be 48 inches; then, we measured the width of each wheel to be 8 inches. 

Immediately, my Uncle told me that we would put the center of two boards 40 inches from one another. 

When you sit down and do the math, this makes sense. Each wheel is 8 inches across, and you want the center of the boards to be at the center of each wheel. So, if you know the total distance between the outside of the wheels is 48 inches, you can subtract half of the width of each wheel to figure out the distance between their centers. 

What’s surprising to me, though, was not how quickly he did the math; again, the math is quite simple. The surprising part was how quickly he fetched the right equation in his head. Obviously, he had done this before; I didn’t even know the math problem we were solving.  

That being said, the most important part here is that we started with understanding the real world—how far the center of the wheels were from one another. This gave us the precision that everything else was rooted in.

To start constructing the ramp, we placed the boards with roughly 40 inches between their centers at the top of the pallets. This was an operation that required a tape measure, but we didn’t triple check the distance to make sure it was perfect; the fact that we were even measuring it put us well within the acceptable range.

Pivoting

A peculiarity I noticed after we lined the boards on top of the pallets was that my uncle only put one screw in on the inside of each board. While I did not understand why at first, effectively, this locked in with certainty that the top two boards were “good enough” while allowing us to move the bottom of the boards into place.

When we walked down to the point where the boards met the ground, we could adjust the distance between them there without having to worry about the distance between the boards at the top moving. This isolated the issues. 

And, of course, we switched from measuring the distance between the center of each board to measuring the distance between the inside of each board to make the task easier to get right by further removing a place where a human might err. After all, eyeballing the center of a board is more challenging than identifying it’s edge.

Then, when that distance was within half an inch of 34 inches, we added in the second screw at the top of each board to stop them from pivoting anymore.

It was not perfect, but, in 5 minutes, we had constructed a sufficiently evenly spaced ramp

Overkill for Good Measure

However, two saggy 2x6’s of that length could not support the weight of a golf cart; so, quickly, we added in a finishing touch. Two car jacks were used at about the middle of each of the boards to add additional support. 

And then, with a little guidance from my other uncle to make sure the golf cart didn’t drive off the ramp, my uncle seamlessly delivered into the back of the trailer. Some ratchet straps were added to secure it for good measure.

The impressive part here was my Uncle’s ability to immediately identify some object in the environment of sufficient strength to support the load. Of course, I’m sure the jacks were overkill, but that’s also part of the point–one of the worst things that could have happened would have been the golf cart breaking the ramp. So, here, being sufficient would be the same as being sufficiently overkill.

Sufficient Precision

The whole thing hinged on what I’d call “sufficient precision,” which requires that the person executing it has a deep enough understanding of the task at hand to execute with exact precision if they wanted to. 

He did the math needed to construct a perfectly spaced ramp and then quickly constructed it within sufficient bounds. Where he didn’t do the math, which was on the strength it needed to support the golf cart, he went “overkill” to be safe.

If we were building a ramp to be used over and over again, I’m sure the precision would have increased. But, the task was relatively straightforward and the solution he selected got the thing done. 

In other words, I consider my Uncle a “hacker” in the same sense that I defined it two weeks ago; fleshed out a bit more, we have:

Hacker: Someone who completes a task with sufficient precision while following the path of least resistance and disregarding artificial parameters.

You can be a “hacker” whether you have a saw and some wood or a keyboard.

Do you do the thing in such a way that allows for completion of the task hand? And then, part of that we didn’t discuss here is can you pre-emptively see when your solution is no longer sufficient and rewrite it or remake it with the new information you’ve gained?

When you get stuck while trying to do something hard, always ask yourself, am I making this harder than it needs to be? Have I focused on the points/questions that actually matter?

It seems like one of the best things about experience is knowing how to focus on the variables that matter with the necessary precision.

Live Deeply,