[paxys]

That's my point. You are simply converting the problem to a new form, not actually solving it.

Hey here's a solution to the halting problem – always assume yes, and then figure out the edge cases. How do you do that? Well that's on you, I did my job.

In a distributed system that needs exactly-once delivery, implementing perfect idempotence is equally impossible.

[burnished]

Converting a problem to a new form that you know how to better solve, or at least hope is more tractable, is a time honored mathematical and CS tradition

[nawgz]

Idempotency - famously complex. No one has ever successfully implemented it, great point.

[paxys]

If you don't think idempotency can be complex then you haven't really worked on serious distributed computing problems.

[nawgz]

If you don't think your analogy is a miss then you haven't really read any serious literature.