I humbly disagree, vol. 1
I have just read this tweet:
Every time someone asks HOW to do sth and receives as answer “What I don’t understand is WHY do you want do this?” a cute rabbit is killed
It is a nice excuse to fire up a text editor and ramble : )
Here are some reasons why I think rabbits are safe:
The person asking HOW may not have a good (enough) knowledge of the problem domain. Example:
How do I compile Ruby?
(You don’t need to)
The person answering might need more information about the problem in order to help. Example:
How can I learn to play guitar?
(The answer may depend on why you want to play it. Is it as a hobby? Do you want to become a professional player?)
The person answering may have detected a potential problem in the approach. Example:
How do I format the disc and reinstall the OS in my MacBook?
(That sounds like a Windows users trying to fix a Mac problem the wrong way)
Oh, if I had a dollar for every HOW I’ve replied to that ended up being a long series of WHY…
Disclaimer: I am a why person :)
