[pgwhalen]

I don't think it's cynical, I think it's the point. Describing the problem is not easy, and to your point, is sometimes controversial.

One advantage of focusing on describing the problem is that it naturally lets you have an impact on what you believe to be the important parts of the solution.

[rtpg]

I just want to acknowledge that describing the problem is part of picking the solution, and it's not really _that much_ of a "I'm making the most neutral action and letting other people actually choose the solution".

Honestly the "real" hands off thing is letting somebody else also describe the problem and then probing it. But that might lead to a bit too much of an existential crisis for some people. And hey, if something works it works

[pgwhalen]

For sure, it’s only partly hands off. But he is an engineer after all, he should be doing something outside of just managing.