Comment by alanfranz

Framing the question in a proper way is interesting. By the way, I think there's another common pattern, especially in the corporate/enterprise world: the proposed solution is ACTUALLY better and simpler than the super-complex-version that somebody is proposing; but:

- At a certain point, the original problem was forgotten. Maybe the original problem was "execute some commands on N machines". But initially, those machines were a mix of operating systems, some of which would not offer an ssh daemon. And another path was pursued. But, after a certain time, all non-ssh-offering OSes were pulled, but the pursue of a different path remained.

- Technology evolved in the months-or-years while pursuing a certain solution, and the original pursuer either didn't know that, or he would not be ready to abandon his efforts (sunk cost fallacy)

- Sometimes, just looking from outside is a good way to find a good solution.

- Sometimes, just trying to solve a problem for months or years lets the solver to properly frame the problem, and enunciating a problem in a good, concise, comprehensive way goes miles towards finding a solution.

So: sometimes people who ask things that way actually think that the solution is stupid. But they shouldn't think the people trying to solving it are stupid.