That Video Of A Young Man Pushing Up A Manhole Cover And Getting Knocked Down Into The Void By A Passing Vehicle Provides Stout Lessons For AI Self-Driving Cars



Have you been asked about manhole covers in any of your recent high-tech company job interviews?

Probably you have.

Yes, oddly enough, manhole covers became a common topic for job interviews in the last several years, especially when seeking a job at a high-tech firm. You might assume that the jobs in question were somehow related to producing manhole covers or possibly working on street construction crews.

Nope.

The matter of manhole covers was suddenly being brought up in all kinds of job interviews for nearly any kind of job at a high-tech firm. Want to be a programmer at a high-tech firm? Better be ready for those manhole questions. Want to work in finance or marketing at a high-tech firm. Manhole covers are undoubtedly going to come up.

Here’s the deal.

In one of those recruitment crazed trends, bringing up the offbeat topic of manhole covers became the hot new means to somehow screen candidates, supposedly separating the creative wheat from the dullard chaff. The interview questions about manhole covers were presumably aimed at eliciting how well someone thinks out-of-the-box or thinks on the spot, whichever of those two attributes the company is seeking to find in suitable applicants (or both qualities combined).

Let’s start with one of the initial mind-bending questions that gained a lot of traction with interviewers.

Are you ready?

The interviewer looks at you with a seriously straight face and asks you to estimate how many manhole covers there are in New York City. You are given a moment or two to reflect on this deep-thinking question. The interviewer is watching you closely to see how you cope with this distressingly off-the-wall issue. pg

If you’ve not heard the question before, please go ahead and mull over the matter in your mind. Try not to show any outward indication of cold sweat or otherwise tip your hand that you are struggling with the keen query. It would be better for you to appear like a hipster calculating machine and that you are crafting the best possible answer for this altogether immensely fascinating question.

Of course, you might actually be thinking that it is an esoteric or eccentric question and doesn’t have much to do with the job that you are applying for. Nonetheless, in the quirky nature of how job interviews go, you must not dare to challenge such a question and instead act like it is the best question since the making of sliced bread.

Since I don’t want you to ever lose a potential juicy job at a high-tech firm simply because of the manhole question, I’ll happily reveal the answer to you.

You are supposed to estimate the number of manhole covers by first mentally conjuring up a vision in your head that dreamily indicates the roadway layout of New York City. In essence, avenues run in one direction (typically north-south), and the streets go in a roughly perpendicular direction (usually east-west). This is a grid-style layout, akin to a matrix. Imagine a spreadsheet that has various rows and columns.