This brings up a related and harder question.

When someone asks a question, should you answer the question that they asked or the question that you think they should be asking? This applies because often someone asking a question really needs to know how to answer it for themselves rather than the answer to that specific question. But very often people show up saying, "I need to do this, how do I do this" when it is obvious that the fact that they want to do that indicates they should be learning about something else.

So should you answer the question asked (say how to do a soft reference) or explain why you think they should be thinking about something else? I tend to do the latter but don't really know how to draw the line. Thoughts?

In reply to RE (tilly) 1: Are there questions to basic? by tilly
in thread Are there questions to basic? by OzzyOsbourne

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