another example of "why don't you just"- the tendancy of technical people to tell other people technical people how to do their job better, without the necessary context to understand why it is a way (chesterton's fence).
Two instances recently come to mind, my asking my father (an orthopaedic trauma surgeon) why we don't just make hips (in total hip replacement) out of dead people's bone instead of out of whatever material they do now, and my father's asking me something about why blue LEDs are supposedly so hard (why don't you just wrap them in blue film).
On the Internet, everyone is always like "you guys always think you can do our job better!". In real life, everyone is always like "hmm, that's interesting. Let me explain why". But perhaps it's just everyone I know.
I saw this the other day too in another HN comment⁰ where people assume that "Why don't you just" and questions like that are demeaning.
It's disappointing, because it shuts down any form of reasonable discussion, and causes people to automatically assume the worst intentions without applying the principle of charity. But on the other hand, mansplaining is actually a real, pervasive problem, so it's understandable that people can become viscerally negative toward anyone who starts explaining something without first verbally demonstrating humility.
When you ask your father why something is done a certain way, you're seeking information. You're not questioning the competence of his field or implying that you have seen an obvious solution that his entire field has simply missed.
However, when engineers say "This change will require 4-6 weeks" and their boss says "Can't you just add a form field and run a database migration and ship it tonight?", the boss is casting doubt on the team's assessment of the situation and their competency in executing.
The demeaning nature varies with intent. If someone is asking a simple question ("Why can't we just ship it tonight? Help me understand") it's nowhere near as bad as a boss waiving away objections with an over-simplified order ("Just change the code and ship it tonight!")
What is a bit more pervasive, though, is a growing belief that any question of the form "why can't you just...?" is inherently condescending and rude.
Yes, I agree that a "help me understand"-style question is the ideal way to ask, but I think people have definitely become more (IMO unreasonably) sensitive against the "why can't you just...?" form, when often it's asked innocently and without a trace of disrespect.
Something I always try to remind myself: I can't control other people's behavior, but I can control how I react to it. We should try to gently correct truly bad behavior when it is safe and constructive to do so, but it generally does us no good to get all worked up about it in the first place, especially if it's something as benign as a poorly-worded question. And being impatient with these sorts of things can be to our detriment; sometimes a fresh, layman's perspective can provide an insight we hadn't considered.
E.g. Instead of telling a cat food company how much they would save with a different size, you could ask a company why they don't optimise for the lowest surface area, or if they have considered it. The first assumes you are right and they are wrong from the get go, while they are the domain experts.
Really interesting dialogue though!
Roughly, "it should always be okay to ask, since they can always just say no" vs "saying no is a bit awkward, so only ask for things if the answer is going to be yes".
In terms of the above:
Sure, the person doesn't have to apply the suggestions. But the only reason you'd make a suggestion is if you think something's wrong or could be improved. And suggesting something is wrong if it isn't is awkward. etc.
I personally find that approaching problems with an attitude of "Why do you do it like that instead of like this?", or even "have you considered this?", usually provides more insight and a more collaborative discussion than "You should do it like this".
Every person out there has a brilliant idea that just needs to be implemented (by someone else), fitting nicely into the "why don't they just".
Engineers are conspicuously good at something and then it's fun to make fun of them, but I don't think their behavior in this regard is any different than anyone else, except that they may more frequently give thought to solving something.
"why don't you just" is a question, and if they had not asked said question they (as well as the readers of their book) would not know the (right) answer to it.
And don't get me started on the cereal box people... THEY SHOULD BE CUBES.
And I'm looking at you water bottles - if you were all cubes too don't you realise how you could nest to avoid air during shipping? They could have cut outs in the bases for lids... Idiots everywhere!
I'm going back to my car. It runs on petrol because the idiots in engineering haven't worked out it could just run on hydrogen yet.
(All the above have reasons for being the way they are, and I think it's usually a good idea to understand why something is the way it is before you try to change it)
What if someone that had no idea about programming came over and told you that you could program faster if you used a for loop, without ever reading your code? They probably think I suck at programming, or think a bit too much of themselves.
This is a mathematician telling canned packaging experts that they could save money by considering the size of the can.
I don’t know how people have the ego to think they’re going to study a problem for an hour or two and discover solutions that have eluded competent people that have spent their careers studying the problem.
I would say most novices soon find out why things are done the way they are done. True innovation is really exceptional.
Many times, I've stumbled across reports from other fields about solving problems in ways well known for their field, but unknown in mine that would apply well for some problems in my field. A (kindly worded) suggestion and reference from someone who thought to be helpful would be useful.
Of course, some fences are Chesterton's fences, and some are just randomly placed fences in weird spots.