The XY Problem (2014)
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The XY Problem (2014)
1–10 of 111 posts
Re: The XY Problem (2014)
#2The worst XY problem is knowing you want to do Y, even if its strange or whatever, asking how to do it, and people asking you "why do Y? Do X instead".
Happens all the time in Stack Overflow.
Just answer the fucking question, and then give the lecture on why you think it should be done that way, or why it shouldn't be done at all...
Re: The XY Problem (2014)
#3Content aside (good points!), I love the site's simple layout. Though I did have some difficulty reading the code blocks because of the low contrast.
Re: The XY Problem (2014)
#4The worst XY problem is knowing you want to do Y, even if its strange or whatever, asking how to do it, and people asking you "why do Y? Do X instead". Happens all the time in Stack Overflow. Just answer the fucking question, and then give the lecture on why you think it should be done that way, or why it shouldn't be done at all...
isn't the XY problem that you don't really know you want to do Y? and if you did know, wouldn't you know?
Re: The XY Problem (2014)
#5The worst XY problem is knowing you want to do Y, even if its strange or whatever, asking how to do it, and people asking you "why do Y? Do X instead". Happens all the time in Stack Overflow. Just answer the fucking question, and then give the lecture on why you think it should be done that way, or why it shouldn't be done at all...
isn't the XY problem that you don't really know you want to do Y? and if you did know, wouldn't you know?
You know you want to do Y, but you don't tell others that you actually want to do X, and Y seems like a reasonable thing (to you) to do to reach X.
Re: The XY Problem (2014)
#6The worst XY problem is knowing you want to do Y, even if its strange or whatever, asking how to do it, and people asking you "why do Y? Do X instead". Happens all the time in Stack Overflow. Just answer the fucking question, and then give the lecture on why you think it should be done that way, or why it shouldn't be done at all...
In the absence of evidence-you-know-you-need-Y: the odds are often HEAVILY skewed towards you not knowing about X, or being confused about either X or Y's purpose.
If you do tech support of any kind with random people, it's pretty clear that a majority simply don't know what's available, or why Y may not be a good idea. They need to do a thing, heard that Y can do it, and now they're asking how to use Y - reasonable, but frequently misguided. When Y is dramatically more complex (either harder to set up, or more error-prone to use), recommending X before sinking a ton of effort into explaining Y solves a lot of cases quickly, for both parties.
Re: The XY Problem (2014)
#7The worst XY problem is knowing you want to do Y, even if its strange or whatever, asking how to do it, and people asking you "why do Y? Do X instead". Happens all the time in Stack Overflow. Just answer the fucking question, and then give the lecture on why you think it should be done that way, or why it shouldn't be done at all...
I once asked a question about an obscure corner of C++. I was only trying to learn more about the language[0]... The answer with the most useful information also contained a long and patronizing rant about why I should never do that. I'm not a novice, and I'm capable of deciding for myself whether I should or shouldn't use something.
I just couldn't bring myself to give that jerk credit, so I deleted the question and never logged in again. There are a lot of smart people there, but it's just not worth dealing with them.
Maybe this isn't an XY problem, but I suspect it's just as common (at least on most of the Stack Exchange sites).
[0] Anyone who thinks they know all of C++ doesn't even know what they don't know.
Re: The XY Problem (2014)
#8[deleted]
Re: The XY Problem (2014)
#9The worst XY problem is knowing you want to do Y, even if its strange or whatever, asking how to do it, and people asking you "why do Y? Do X instead". Happens all the time in Stack Overflow. Just answer the fucking question, and then give the lecture on why you think it should be done that way, or why it shouldn't be done at all...
You have to consider that SO exists not only to answer your specific problem, but also to help other users who might face a similar problem. In that context, it might be helpful to mention, if you are the asking person, include the details why you cannot do X, if you know you can't; or, if your question doesn't include details about your specific circumstance, answers that mention that common solution is to do X instead.
Re: The XY Problem (2014)
#10Also known as the "I don't know the answer to your question, but here's an answer to a different question so I can look smart" problem.