Well done dad - you've covered some complex stuff in a fun and accessible way. Good skills.
If anyone else doubts why this is valid Hacker News, they may want to simply hand in their nerd card and do something else.
It's hacker news, not motivational team building shared insight news. I'd expect a GA solver which selected the four pieces which could be constructed into the tallest possible structure (with all the dirty tricks e.g. a boat hull attached to a wobbly assemblage of Giant Base/wing plates with a 12x24 brick balanced on the top), with a Speculation section positing possible future pieces which would allow an even taller structure (with plausible details of the sets & why they would need even longer pieces than those currently available).
Personally speaking, I have no idea what a GA solver is but my initial solution would involve putting all the pieces on top of each other with their longest edges aligned - that's the maximum. Then we look at the constraints: gravity is a bit of a bugger. etc etc
Keep your card and open your mind. You might be a bright lad but you can still learn to look at problems from a fresh angle. The OP's daughter is in safe hands as far as I can see - she'll learn critical thinking and that is a real gift.
BTW: what is a GA solver?
Genetic Algorithm solver, I assume.
I don't recall the initial problem as stated precluding outside assistance.
My point stands: dad is pushing daughter to use the rather large brain that she has to solve a problem. Whether or not she becomes a Hacker as we know it does not matter - she is learning critical and analytical thought processes through this game.
That is one of the many gifts that any parent can bestow on their progeny and I'm impressed at his approach in this case. Society as a whole becomes a little richer as a whole through these little steps.
Coming from a family with a less money than average North Americans, this is an especially good lesson. For countries with enormous possibility, but few open paths to achievement, the value of this kind of ability in thinking can not be overstated.
Longest axes aligned. Longest edges is not the maximum. The article's final solution uses a long axis rather than an edge.
Oh, advancement through self-education? There's practically zero pedagogic content on HN. Or in this submission! How did the father guide his daughter? Through examples & showing a restricted subset of the problem? By following the technique in How to Solve It & steadfast avoiding showing the student anything but patiently & gently reminding them of what they know & which skill to apply in each circumstance?
More seriously, though -- I think problems like this can actually be more interesting than solutions. They get you thinking about what the solution might be. Lots of interesting work starts with a problem rather than a particular solution technique. That said, I'd be interested to see your GA solver solution, or any other solution someone can find!
Reminds me of an animated shortfilm I saw not too long ago but not that recently either.
There's this person that has a box full of questions and s/he encounters an elderly person that has "all the answers", and I'm not going to spoil the rest.
I just can't for the life of me remember what it was called and I can't find it with any web search I can think of either. Anyone know which one I'm thinking of?
The large thing between my ears beats the crap out of a GA thingie any day, provided that the problem is loosely defined 8)
That said it would probably work well enough for this problem.
The problem & solution seemed trivial, not novel: tallest structure with _these four_ pieces (get them on their sides) vs. _any four_ pieces (hmm what is the longest piece, will it be stable on its side, can they be stacked, what will help them stack, etc.)
Enabling potential CS Majors to encounter technically-unencumbered problems is a great first step!
As an adult no one bats an eye if you play something like Cities: Skylines, minecraft or dwarf fortress. There's an army of adults playing FarmVille. So why not lego?