• jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is sometimes called an xy problem.

    Like, someone wants to do some calculations in a spreadsheet. They don’t know spreadsheets or Excel, but they know JavaScript. So they try to use JavaScript in their spreadsheet. They get part way and ask you “hey how do I get console.log to print to a cell?”. Which is weird. Instead they should be asking “how do I add up the numbers in this column?”

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem

    • agent_flounder
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      TIL thanks. Strange that I’ve been in IT all this time and haven’t heard the term frequently.