People learning CPR sometimes display this kind of feature.
In the first aid qualification I teach you can fail the CPR assessment for failing to check if the casualty is breathing, or for failing to call for an ambulance. Both automatic fails.
I am sure that it will come as no surprise to you that this feels unfair to some of the candidates. They devote so much mental energy to remembering it is 30-to-2, but an extra 5 breaths at the beginning for a child. One handed compressions because the casualty is small, 1/3rd of the depth of the chest. 120 beats per minute. Tilt the chin back to give breaths. They can do all that, but they failed the exam in the first 20 seconds when they didn’t mime a phone call to the ambulance. They could actually have messed up 2/3rds of that other stuff and gotten away with it. I have told them all the marking scheme. I reminded them 3 minutes before the exam “Their are three ways of automatically failing this exam. Failing to check for dangers, or breathing and failing to ring an ambulance”. But no, the big beautiful lump of plastic is just so exciting, time to do compressions on it.
In this case, and the code-comments case, I think part of it is that the human mind focuses on the novel or active part of the experience. Comments don’t “do” anything. Taking an imaginary phone out of your pocket and saying “999 ambulance” doesn’t “do” anything. Actual code does stuff. Pressing on the manikin’s chest makes it squeeze down.
People learning CPR sometimes display this kind of feature.
In the first aid qualification I teach you can fail the CPR assessment for failing to check if the casualty is breathing, or for failing to call for an ambulance. Both automatic fails.
I am sure that it will come as no surprise to you that this feels unfair to some of the candidates. They devote so much mental energy to remembering it is 30-to-2, but an extra 5 breaths at the beginning for a child. One handed compressions because the casualty is small, 1/3rd of the depth of the chest. 120 beats per minute. Tilt the chin back to give breaths. They can do all that, but they failed the exam in the first 20 seconds when they didn’t mime a phone call to the ambulance. They could actually have messed up 2/3rds of that other stuff and gotten away with it. I have told them all the marking scheme. I reminded them 3 minutes before the exam “Their are three ways of automatically failing this exam. Failing to check for dangers, or breathing and failing to ring an ambulance”. But no, the big beautiful lump of plastic is just so exciting, time to do compressions on it.
In this case, and the code-comments case, I think part of it is that the human mind focuses on the novel or active part of the experience. Comments don’t “do” anything. Taking an imaginary phone out of your pocket and saying “999 ambulance” doesn’t “do” anything. Actual code does stuff. Pressing on the manikin’s chest makes it squeeze down.