The XY Problem
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Asking about your attempted solution rather than your actual problem
See Also: Asking Smart Questions. What is it? The XY problem is asking about your attempted solution rather than your actual problem. This leads to enormous amounts of wasted time and energy, both on the part of people asking for help, and on the part of those providing help. User wants to do X. User doesn't know how to do X, but thinks they can fumble their way to a solution if they can just manage to do Y. User doesn't know how to do Y either. User asks for help with Y. Others try to help user with Y, but are confused because Y seems like a strange problem to want to solve. After…
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