Comment by zamadatix

Example 1 is fantastic in that it clearly conveys how to avoid an oft forgotten portion of the XY problem: the XY problem problem. Personally, I think the amount of time spent attempting a literal answer before inquiring along the lines of if it's an XY problem should be proportional to the latency of the communication. Talking through a scenario where it turns out it wasn't an XY problem isn't really much of an inconvenience to do in person. Talking through the same scenario in a forum or email can be grating.