Just give the man the fish (i.e. just answer the question)

I’ve had similar experiences with the &quot;XY Problem&quot;. When I was learning, I’d sometimes ask weird questions questions, like &quot;Is it safe to call React&#x27;s useState setter function outside the component it was created in or from an event handler?&quot; Instead of a direct answer, yes it&#x27;s safe, I’d often just get linked to an XY Problem website and told to explain what I was actually trying to accomplish. Then get argued with about whether or not this was an anti-pattern, without ever getting the original question answered.<p>I had similar experience with #perl on Freenode, the people there were very helpful and I don&#x27;t think anyone there intended any amusement at my expense. But getting your weird questions answered was like pulling teeth.<p>Now, I always try to answer the original question first, then follow up with additional explanation about why doing something might be a bad idea or lead to future inconvenience.

At complete face value, I think I agree. At large, we used to have the phrase, &quot;answer, then educate&quot; in meetings. If someone asks a question, lead with the answer. But, crucially, be ready to expand with more.<p>It can be frustrating when you keep seeing what seem like low effort questions. At the same time, consider the frustration on the other side when you ask a question and then got a long answer that didn&#x27;t exactly answer. Further, consider that frustration in reading a question online is something you bring to the situation. You can always not respond.

This kind of gatekeeping behavior has been around for as long as forums have. It&#x27;s a power game the more experienced users play in order to lord their knowledge and power over the less experienced.<p>They&#x27;ll always have somewhat plausible reasons for why they shouldn&#x27;t just give the information, but in reality they&#x27;re just being assholes in order to watch the new guy squirm. How they add the fig leaf depends on the forum.

My big beef (and this happens on S.O. all the time) is when I ask a detailed question about how to do some very specific ABC thing, and instead of answering, the responders try to question my requirements, turn the problem into a XY problem[1], or answer something totally different.<p>&quot;What are you <i>really</i> trying to do?&quot;<p>&quot;ABC is not how I&#x27;d solve the problem I imagine you are working on.&quot;<p>&quot;I don&#x27;t know how to do ABC, but I know how to do DEF...&quot;<p>&quot;Why do you want to do ABC?&quot;<p>I mean, thanks for all of your unsolicited design input, I guess, but I&#x27;m pretty specifically asking for help with ABC.<p>1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;XY_problem" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;XY_problem</a>

Same applies for questions that display “bad” ideas. “How can I resolve this problem in a for loop… that I’m using to build a SQL query that trusts user input”.<p>Give the solution <i>and</i> the reason why it is a bad idea.

I concur. What&#x27;s cool about fish is you can clone them. But you do need a <i>de novo</i> specimen to bootstrap the process.

Light a man on fire and he&#x27;ll be warm for the rest of his life.

Don&#x27;t teach a man how to fish and feed yourself. He&#x27;s a grown man, fishing&#x27;s not that hard.