[psyc]

It doesn't matter whether they're 'right'. Answer the question as asked. Chances are the answerer does not understand the context, but made an assumption. Then the answer will be unhelpful and vexing. Just answer the question.

"Some kind of help is the kind of help that helping is all about. And some kind of help is the kind of help we all can do without." -Shel Silverstein

[jldugger]

It's a sort of paradox: we all imagine questioning the motivation behind a question will reveal a simpler solution, but are always confident our own motives do not admit one, and would really like it if we don't have to explain ourselves in every quora.

[psyc]

What strikes me as a paradox is the premise that answerers do not have time to 'do my homework' or 'Google that for me' but they do have time to understand my complex real-world constraints in enough detail to make this judgment for me, before answering a question that is a minuscule detail in my overall solution.

[olavk]

Imagine yourself in the shoes of a person who chose to answer questions on SO in their spare time. What could be their motivation?

- To get a sense of pride and accomplishment by helping people who have a problem. They want to dig into what the actual problem is, in order to help the person in the best way. The don't want to solve homework problems because they are not "real" problems.

- To get a sense of pride and accomplishes by answering technical questions as correctly as possible. This type of person might also solve homework problems posted on the site because they enjoy the challenge.

Both motivations exist, and they have different attitudes to the XY problem. You will se both attitudes in this thread.

But not many people will get a sense of pride and accomplishments by answering a question which could be found by a single google query. So why should they use their time on that?

[psyc]

The google query turns up unhelpful SO answers. I’ve noticed you seem to have a pretty fixed idea of the categories questions and answers fall into, and the overall rightness of the state of SO. There isn’t much I can say. You might even be right about the majority case, and maybe my whole experience is outlying. Except there are so many with the same complaints.

[olavk]

Yeah SO have been incredibly helpful to me many times, so I really appreciate it. But I recognize not everyone has a good experience and I'm trying to understand the issues so perhaps I can contribute back by improving the site a little.