11–20 of 111 posts
Patrons engaged in research show the same pattern and it's important for a librarian to accurately assess what the patron is truly looking for.
The 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 inst…
User asks I want to do Y.
The responding party should in my opinion:
- Provide a solution to Y first. This is OP's point.
- Then as a corollary, provide some of their guesswork of what X might be and if it is true, then this is how to solve X without having to do Y.
So, it is still beneficial to n00bs and the uninformed, just puts the direct answer to Y first. That's all OP is asking and I agree with that.
Most of the time, smartass responses go into the guesswork regime by assuming the User wanted to do X. More than often User actually wanted to do Z, it's not always true and it is polluting SO against the spirit of "Direct question ---> Direct answer" because discovery and searching of answers happen through Y, not X. Most people came to SO because of Y, that's how they landed there in the first place.
The 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...
This isn't something you do by discussing how unfair other people are. It's something you do by communicating the constraints you're working inside, your knowledge of more typical solutions, and why they don't work for you.
If you aren't providing that information, you're wasting the time of everyone who is voluntarily helping others. It's not their fault that you're not providing critical information for answering your question effectively.
When you're the special case, you have to communicate that fact. It's just wasting everyone's time when you expect others to know it without communication.
The 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 inst…
They could ask their own questions.
I'd rather have a database of specific questions with specific answers than "X-Ys" all over the place.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 inst…
No. User asks I want to do Y. The responding party should in my opinion: - Provide a solution to Y first . This is OP's point. - Then as a corollary, provide some of their guesswork of what X might be and if it is true, then this is how to solve X without having to do Y. So, it is still beneficial to n00bs and the uninformed, just puts the direct answer to Y first . That's all OP is asking and I agree with that. Most…
The 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...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. User asks I want to do Y. The responding party should in my opinion: - Provide a solution to Y first . This is OP's point. - Then as a corollary, provide some of their guesswork of what X might be and if it is true, then this is how to solve X without having to do Y. So, it is still beneficial to n00bs and the uninformed, just puts the direct answer to Y first . That's all OP is asking and I agree with that. Most…
This is not a good approach. For the typical person asking a question, you waste their time at best. At worst, they actually use your solution to Y and ignore why it's bad. Both of those are significantly worse than clarifying the problem in the first place.
The bad approach is when the entire thread is full of guesses of what X might be without knowing the full context. Y is nowhere to be found. It breaks the UX of SO.
The 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...
A. You can't ask "what's the best way to do X" because, for whatever reason, these kind of questions are not aligned with "the site's scope".
but
B. When you ask something specific, you get a lot of "it's better if you do X" answers. I even have had some really nice questions closed because some mods thought I was "asking the wrong thing".
Both behaviors are allowed and encouraged ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.