Oblique Question

This is a question where you listen to the form of the answer, not the answer itself.

"Is there a hyphen in 'anal-retentive'?" If they try to answer, you know they are. After all, who really cares from hyphens? OTOH... [And see AnalRetentive if you just have to know. ;-> ]


Thanks to the UnknownAuthor, that was good for a laugh at the end of a long day :-)

A related technique is ListeningForTheQuestions, since the questions people ask are indicative of their concerns and priorities. --PeteMcBreen

...As in the question I got about use cases the other day, "And is there any experience to show that this approach does not have, uh, catastrophic after-effects?" --AlistairCockburn


Is this distinct from the ObtuseQuestion??

oblique as in slanted. obtuse as in blunt or not sharp. methinks distinct!


Can someone provide an example, I'm having trouble coming up with one. "Is there a hyphen in 'anal retentive'?" isn't an example, at least as given, since you are looking for the answer itself--"yes" or "no".

MeAnswer?: "yes" "no" or "idunno". The first two are the same answer.

"idunno" can also be the same answer (if the questionee then proceeds to research the answer!). I like "who cares".

Another example that is sometimes done in interviews for C programming jobs:

what does "x = a+++b" do?

The answer you want has nothing to do with the values of variables or how the compiler parses code -- the answer you want is basically "what kind of a crazy person writes expressions like that?"

Another from interviewing C++ programmers:

which CASE (ComputerAidedSoftwareEngineering?) tool do you prefer?

After all, we're looking for programmers, not UML jockeys :-)


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