Every now and then I hear people say I might have an "XY problem". What is that?
"XY Problem" explanations by various people:
You want to do X, and you think Y is the best way of doing so. Instead of asking about X, you ask about Y.
— from Re: sequencial file naming by Abigail
You're trying to do X, and you thought of solution Y. So you're asking about solution Y, without even mentioning X. The problem is, there might be a better solution, but we can't know that unless you describe what X is.
— from Re: How do I keep the command line from eating the backslashes? by revdiablo
Someone asks how to do Y when they really want to do X. They ask how to do Y because they believe it is the best way to accomplish X. People trying to help go through many iterations of "try this", followed by "that won't work because of". That is, depending on the circumstances, other solutions may be the way to go.
— from Re: Re: Re: Re: regex to validate e-mail addresses and phone numbers by Limbic~Region
To answer question Y, without understanding larger problem (the context) X, will most likely *not* help them entirely with X.
— from <m18zt5muq9.fsf_-_@halfdome.holdit.com> by merlyn. Message can be found here.
A.k.a. "premature closure": the questioner wanted to solve some not very clearly stated X, they concluded that Y was a component of a solution, and now they're asking how to implement Y.
— from <Pine.GHP.4.21.0009061210570.8800-100000@hpplus03.cern.ch> by Alan J. Flavell
The XY problem is when you need to do X, and you think you can use Y to do X, so you ask about how to do Y, when what you really should do is state what your X problem is. There may be a Z solution that is even better than Y, but nobody can suggest it if X is never mentioned.
— from <slrn89um8j.5g9.tadmc@magna.metronet.com> by Tad McClellan
When people come [in here] asking how to do something stupid, I'm never quite sure what to do. I can just answer the question as asked, figuring that it's not my problem to tell people that they're being stupid. . . . But if I do that, people might jump on me for being a smart aleck, which has happened at times. ("Come on, help the poor guy out; if you know what he really need why don't you just give it to him?")
. . .
On the other hand, I could try to answer on a different level, present a better solution, and maybe slap a little education on 'em. That's nice when it works, but if it doesn't it's really sad to see your hard work and good advice ignored. Also, people tend to jump on you for not answering the question. ("Who are you to be telling this guy what he should be doing? Just answer the question.")
. . .
I guess there's room for both kinds of answer. Or maybe there isn't room for either kind.— from <6lnb70$lct$1@monet.op.net> by MJDMJD also posted an earlier diatribe on the subject, which has become a USENET classic: Re: I never get answers to questions in newsgroups.
It has been updated several times over the years; one version appears to have been the origin of the famous "Retardo!" quote.
His latest version is on his website: TIP: How to post good questions.
Too bad that the more general problem, X, is often considered off topic for this forum. Y has more of a chance to look like a Perl problem.
— from <bkocrs0rtjcuh95l96pdbatffbpu1plk4h@4ax.com> by bart
Men.
— by me, just now.
See Also
ESR's How to ask questions the smart way includes a Q: How can I use X to do Y?
In XYZ Questions, chromatic suggests that people try to answer both the X and the Y.
On Answering Questions is an excellent article by merlyn, where he quotes this message he posted on the unix-porting mailing list.
StackExchange has a page with a rather exhaustive treatment of the topic.
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Re: XY Problem
by wfsp (Abbot) on Apr 11, 2006 at 06:12 UTC | |
by ptum (Priest) on Apr 11, 2006 at 14:20 UTC | |
by jonadab (Parson) on May 10, 2006 at 13:59 UTC | |
by Voronich (Hermit) on Feb 10, 2011 at 15:07 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by xdg (Monsignor) on Apr 10, 2006 at 21:08 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by merlyn (Sage) on Apr 11, 2006 at 02:10 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by rhesa (Vicar) on Apr 10, 2006 at 18:59 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by zentara (Archbishop) on Apr 10, 2006 at 19:04 UTC | |
by Anonymous Monk on Mar 30, 2009 at 14:00 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by Not_a_Number (Prior) on Apr 10, 2006 at 19:55 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by eric256 (Parson) on Apr 10, 2006 at 22:39 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by swampyankee (Parson) on Apr 11, 2006 at 15:13 UTC | |
by blazar (Canon) on May 28, 2007 at 19:33 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by CountZero (Bishop) on Apr 10, 2006 at 20:59 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by jeffa (Bishop) on Apr 11, 2006 at 15:14 UTC | |
by bassplayer (Monsignor) on Apr 11, 2006 at 17:44 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by gam3 (Curate) on Apr 12, 2006 at 12:24 UTC | |
by Anonymous Monk on May 04, 2008 at 17:22 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by OfficeLinebacker (Chaplain) on Jan 07, 2007 at 00:46 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by blazar (Canon) on May 28, 2007 at 19:32 UTC | |
by lantfred (Initiate) on Sep 24, 2010 at 02:04 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by Moron (Curate) on Apr 03, 2007 at 15:27 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by shmem (Chancellor) on Oct 22, 2015 at 19:09 UTC | |
by hdb (Monsignor) on Oct 23, 2015 at 07:04 UTC | |
by shmem (Chancellor) on Oct 23, 2015 at 10:00 UTC | |
Re: XY Problem
by wrog (Friar) on Dec 21, 2014 at 08:36 UTC | |
by jdporter (Paladin) on Dec 21, 2014 at 17:59 UTC | |
by Anonymous Monk on Dec 21, 2014 at 18:34 UTC | |
by jdporter (Paladin) on Dec 25, 2014 at 05:32 UTC | |
by wrog (Friar) on Dec 27, 2014 at 10:31 UTC | |
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