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. ;-> ]

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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

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Is this distinct from the ObtuseQuestion??

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

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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 :-)