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You say it ruins it, but my in my opinion, that's exactly what makes SO valuable. Often, it's not just the asker of the question that's trying to solve X but as
by yura 5y ago
You say it ruins it, but my in my opinion, that's exactly what makes SO valuable. Often, it's not just the asker of the question that's trying to solve X but asks how to solve Y. So when you search on how to solve Y, you might also find out a better way to solve X that doesn't involve solving Y.
And if you are really trying to solve Y, it's not hard to specify that in your question (I know I can solve X without solving Y, but I don't want to solve X, I want is to solve Y in this case). I wouldn't say "there's nothing worse" than that; it's a minor inconvenience.
- craftinator 5y agoWhy don't they just filter out the useless Y's, but keep the good ones?
- SamBam 5y agoI agree. If I'm sure my problem is not an XY problem, but I think it may well not look like that because it's such a weird situation, I will add all the context that explains how I got there. Then either: I do know what I'm doing, and my explanation satisfies people, and they try to work on Y, or: it turns out I was indeed wrong, and I should have solved X some other way. Either way it's a win for me (if anyone bothers to answer the question). But it can be hard for either new people, or people who don't know the domain well enough to even know that it could be an XY problem.