[kazinator]

I don't think programmers, let alone beginners, worry that much about the best way to solve a problem. Usually they are struggling with any way to solve it at all.

You may get the impression from reading some online Q&A sites that everyone wants "the best" solution because of the way a lot of questions get asked. But in fact, phrases like "a good way" or "the best way" are more often than not purely rhetorical devices whose purpose is to appear competent.

The person is trying to ask the question in a way which suggests that he or she does know how to solve the problem in ways that are not so great, and is just looking for a better way. In fact, the reason they are asking is that they don't know even a bad way to solve the problem. They may have a partial solution, which has hit some roadblock or whatever.

People in this type of field sometimes have a hard time admitting they don't know how to do something. Particularly if they are not such beginners and have a track record of solving problems on their own, which has become part of their self-image.

[AnimalMuppet]

I worked with this guy who repeatedly said "There's lots of ways to do it that don't work."

I try an approach, but I run into X. I try a different approach, but I can't make it work because of Y. I try a third approach, but Z. So I ask around about a good approach - one that won't run into these issues. When I do, I'm really asking for an approach that avoids X, Y, Z, W, and however many more are out there. I'm asking for something close to a best practice.

If you buy that approaches that are free from major pitfalls are rare, then I think you and I are in agreement.

[gingerBill]

Author of the article here:

All I ever get from beginners are questions about the "best tool" by which they usually mean "a set of rules and procedures so that I don't have to think about the problem".

> The person is trying to ask the question in a way which suggests that he or she does know how to solve the problem in ways that are not so great, and is just looking for a better way.

It's pretty much always the exact opposite since they rarely understand the problem that they are trying to solve to begin with. And that's the issue! They want a "tool" to just do it for them, even if that tool is not even appropriate for the task at hand. And the questions asked are usually in the form of an XY problem: "how can I use X to do Y?". You might be able to bodge the tool X until problem Y is solved but that doesn't even mean it is appropriate to begin with.

For example: I get a lot of questions at the moment about Entity Component Systems (ECS) and asking what is the best way to make one (or which to use) because they want to make a game. But their games don't even require one in the first place since they have such a low number of entities and components that an ECS would probably be detrimental to them in the first place (performance and productively). But to clarify, if the individual wants to just learn about the topic rather than apply it, then I usually recommend them to learn about relational databases first and how they are implemented.

Many people want to use a tool because they've heard someone else (usually a semi-famous programmer or a big company) using it and then following it in a "flash fad" rather than asking whether or not it is even appropriate to use. I will state that this perfectly _rational_ to do by the way since you are trying to outsource wisdom to others that appear to have it. However, programming as a profession is a best 70 years old, and as a result there has been not been enough time for evolutionary selection pressure to reveal the wisdom, so many people (especially beginners0 are effectively walking around following whatever the latest Fad is hoping for wisdom and a set of rules to follow.

> People in this type of field sometimes have a hard time admitting they don't know how to do something. Particularly if they are not such beginners and have a track record of solving problems on their own, which has become part of their self-image.

Humility is a virtue but also a very difficult one possess. For beginners reading: don't be afraid to make mistakes and look foolish. It is a heck of a lot better to look ignorant but honest than to look ignorant but arrogant.

I highly recommend reading the previous article to this one posted (Pragmatism in Programming Proverbs) to get a better understanding of what I am expressing, since "The Essence of Programming" is a sequel to that article.

[082349872349872]

> the questions asked are usually in the form of an XY problem

My usual approach to an XY problem is to treat it as an AZ problem, asking myself if there are any Ms for which I think I might be able to solve AM or MZ ... but it just occurred to me that this process may not be as intuitively obvious for anyone who has grown up with GPS navigation!