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XY Problem is very real though, especially among beginners, which by its nature SO has a lot of.
by dtech 7y ago
XY Problem is very real though, especially among beginners, which by its nature SO has a lot of.
- Aeolun 7y agoThe solution is not to just close the questions though.
- magicalhippo 7y agoIndeed. Typically I answer[1] these kind of questions by answering what I think is the solution to X, and then I'll follow up with "but if you still really want to do Y" and my attempt at solution for that. If it's not very clear what they're trying to do, I will just answer Y but follow up with asking what they're really trying to do and that there might be a better way than Y because... [1]: on IRC or forums, not on SO
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y agoAnswer X first, then explain why typically Y is what you want so I can safely ignore it.