Solving Wrong Problems

Commenters argue that projects, tools, or decisions are addressing the wrong problems, optimizing suboptimal metrics, or using workarounds instead of fixing root causes in software development and engineering.

➡️ Stable 0.6x Other
3,557
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#2513
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
5
2008
24
2009
65
2010
59
2011
95
2012
116
2013
121
2014
106
2015
139
2016
179
2017
177
2018
201
2019
235
2020
259
2021
344
2022
339
2023
378
2024
321
2025
366
2026
28

Keywords

tbray.org GAS REASON EFT XP DS LOL wrong cause xp wrong thing cycle actionable fix classic calculating root cause

Sample Comments

HeyLaughingBoy • Aug 31, 2022 • View on HN

Shhh! People don't like being told that they're solving the wrong problem.

dekhn • Sep 27, 2023 • View on HN

Ah yes, a variant of the "Why don't you just..." (insert trivial, wrong solution to hard problem here)

brookst • May 27, 2025 • View on HN

“I’m pretty sure they’re doing it wrong but can’t be bothered to figure out a better way” is not super persuasive.

otibom • May 18, 2013 • View on HN

Oh yes, the classic "people won't understand that so let's go with the bad solution".

vanderZwan • Sep 28, 2023 • View on HN

It's not a whataboutism, it's an "optimize the right problem first" remark.

Clubber • Aug 10, 2017 • View on HN

You're conflating what the smart thing to do is with what's actually done. :)

p_j_w • Aug 29, 2025 • View on HN

People like to do a lot of not well justified hand waving. Author is not exempt from this.

0xdeadbeefbabe • Nov 20, 2015 • View on HN

It would be a shame if you are only making some things easier to reason about instead of everything.

k-mcgrady • Jan 30, 2014 • View on HN

How about not fucking things up in the first place? It's stupid to cause an unnecessary problem because one day we might have a solution.

maxklein • Sep 16, 2008 • View on HN

You're making a classic mistake. People are telling you problems, and instead of trying to solve them, you're justifying the reasons. Classic fail.