YX drawback | Construction and Interpretation of Laptop Programmers

2024-03-12 07:36:44

Software program persons are at all times all up within the XY drawback: somebody asks about find out how to do X when what they’re actually attempting to unravel is Y. I discover the YX drawback way more irritating: the place software program folks determine that they wish to reply query Y though what somebody asks is query X.

I’ve seen a couple of completely different manifestations of this sample:

Respondent doesn’t know the reply to X, however does know the reply to Y, and hopes that answering Y demonstrates experience/usefulness.
Respondent doesn’t know the reply to X, however riffs on what the reply most likely can be, and finally ends up answering Y.
Respondent doesn’t imagine that the querent ought to be attempting X and thinks they need to be attempting Y as a substitute; respondent didn’t ask querent the context for X however jumped straight to answering Y.
Respondent is aware of of a course of Y that leads as much as the querent attempting X and decides to enumerate the steps of that course of Y; though they know that the querent is already attempting X.
Respondent misunderstood query X to be query Y.

The widespread recommendation on questions for software program folks is How to ask questions the smart way. The issue with this recommendation is that it’s written from the angle of an uneven relationship: the respondent is a busy skilled, the querent is an idle dilettante; the querent has a accountability to border their query within the optimum method for the skilled to impart knowledge to the loafer.

Ceaselessly the scenario is extra symmetric: we’re each busy consultants, and we each have incomplete information of each the query area and what we’re attempting to attain. Have some persistence with different folks (whichever aspect of the interplay you’re on), and assume good religion on the a part of all concerned till they current opposite proof. Which means ranging from the belief that somebody requested query X as a result of they need a solution to query X.