Comment by isidor3
6 years ago
My go-to would be "Do you know if sshd would work?" To me, framing it directly as a knowledge question, and to not appear as if you're coming from a place of authority (unless you know both their problem and your solution both well enough to solve it without running into edge cases, and how often does that happen?). They either know or they don't, or potentially have a reason for not trying in the first place. If they don't know and don't have a reason, it's a simple "well, that's what I'd try next, it could make things easy if it works" to get your suggestion out there, but you let them solve their problem (if it works...)
I like this a lot. I often phrase this question as "can you tell me about the trade offs of your method vs. something that uses sshd?"
Yes or "Is there a reason we don't use sshd here?"
Why not also explain why you think sshd could work, though? The recipient might not understand the connection you're trying to make between the proposed solution and their problem.
Sometimes it's just a hunch, a feeling that maybe sshd or whatever would work - the hope is they've already figured out that hunch and will be able to clarify your thoughts before you have to.
I'd probably phrase it 'did you consider using X here?' sometimes prefaced with 'maybe I'm missing something...'