On Tue, 2005-03-29 at 21:04 +0100, Dave Ewart wrote: > On Tuesday, 29.03.2005 at 18:27 +0200, martin f krafft wrote: > > > I know that it's sometimes a good idea to make sure that the person is > > actually looking for the right answer, but I have been noticing a > > tendency here (and elsewhere) to always ask first about the > > motivations. > > Interesting observation ... I'm probably one of those 'guilty' of often > asking for the motivation behind apparently 'strange' requests. > > It is helpful to those answering the (apparently unusual) query to know > what problem is being addressed, since past history shows that often the > poster is approaching the problem from the wrong angle, or may even be > addressing the wrong problem! > Agreed. I am guilty of the same responses myself, and for exactly the same reasons.
I would argue that perhaps, tho, both of you are looking at it the wrong way. Instead of looking for a "motive", I often look for what the person is trying to do in an ultimate sense. (I have had many, many, insane or impossible requests turn simple when I find out what the person is *really* trying to do.) <RAMBLE> FWIW, I don't really care about "motive". I do care about solving the problem in a larger sense. Often, a person will come to me with a "simple problem", and I find out that they had a "larger problem" that the "simple problem" was a roadblock to. However, I have found that the "larger problem" is often far, far simpler to solve -- either because there is another way of dealing with the problem, or because someone's solved either a sub or superset of the "larger problem" which makes solving the "smaller problem" a moot point. (Besides, after you've solved the "smaller problem", the person often turns around and says, "Oh, yeah, I was asking because of X...") </RAMBLE> -Ian -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]