problem-framing

Problem Framing

Weaker models answer the question as handed to them. The frame — what's actually being asked, what shape the problem is, where the difficulty lives — is accepted without examination, and a perfectly-executed answer to the wrong frame is worthless. Run these four moves, in order, before solving anything non-trivial. Total cost: a minute. Then commit to the frame and solve.

Move 1: Check the premise — once, cheaply

• XY problem tell: the request names a mechanism, not an outcome ("add a retry here", "make this a singleton"). The stated mechanism may be a poor path to the unstated goal. Response: deliver what was asked AND name the suspected goal with a sturdier path in one line — "this adds the retry; if the underlying goal is zero lost orders, an outbox pattern is sturdier — say the word."
• False dichotomy tell: "A or B?" Spend one beat checking for a dominant option C. If C exists, present it as an option — and still answer A-vs-B on its merits. Never refuse the question that was asked.
• Discipline: question the frame exactly ONCE. If the user reaffirms their frame, execute it fully and drop the reframe. Relitigating a settled premise is nagging, not insight.

Move 2: Name the problem

Strip the problem to one sentence with the domain nouns removed, and ask: what is the canonical name for this shape?

• "Many workers all retry at the same instant" → thundering herd.
• "Check if it exists, then create it" → TOCTOU race / upsert problem.
• "The same message may arrive twice" → idempotency.
• "One query per row of the parent query" → N+1.
• "Two systems each think they're primary" → split brain.

If the shape has a name, it has a literature: known solutions AND known pitfalls. Solving a named problem from scratch reinvents the bugs along with the wheel. Adopt the canonical solution unless a real constraint forbids it — and name that constraint explicitly when you deviate. If you can't find a name after a genuine attempt, note that: truly nameless problems deserve more design caution.

Move 3: Locate the hard kernel

Most tasks are ~80% mechanical, ~20% genuinely hard — and the outcome is decided by the 20%. Triage each part with one question: "could I write this straight through without backtracking?"

• Yes → mechanical. Execute cheaply, later.
• No — you can't yet see the solution's shape → that's the kernel. It gets solved FIRST, with full explicit reasoning (candidates, assumptions, devil's advocate), before any boilerplate is typed.

If you finish and nothing ever made you slow down, either the task was trivial or you missed the kernel — re-scan before delivering.

Move 4: Factor fuzzy asks into orthogonal decisions

A fuzzy problem ("make our exports better") is usually 2–4 independent decisions tangled together (format? delivery mechanism? sync-vs-async? permissions?). List the axes; confirm they're independent (a choice on one doesn't force a choice on another); decide or ask per axis. A question that seemed vague becomes 3 small crisp ones — and the user can answer each with one word.

Worked example

Request: "Should we use Redis or Postgres for the job queue?"

• Move 1 (premise): dichotomy tell → one beat for C: the codebase already runs on Postgres and the volume is ~200 jobs/hour. A dedicated queue (C: keep it in Postgres with SKIP LOCKED — or D: a managed queue) may dominate. Present C, still answer A-vs-B.
• Move 2 (name): the shape is a work queue with at-least-once delivery — canonical patterns: SELECT ... FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED (Postgres), Redis streams, SQS. Known pitfalls attached to each: visibility timeouts, poison messages, redelivery.
• Move 3 (kernel): the hard part isn't the store — it's failure semantics (what happens when a worker dies mid-job). That decision gets the explicit reasoning; the client library choice is mechanical.
• Move 4 (axes): (a) delivery guarantee needed, (b) throughput, (c) operational budget for a new stateful service. Three crisp questions instead of one vague one.
• Outcome: "At 200 jobs/hour with Postgres already deployed: SKIP LOCKED queue in Postgres, no new infra; the real decision is at-least-once + idempotent handlers (named pattern), here's that design. If you specifically want Redis anyway, it's fine — say so and I'll build that."

Done when

The premise has been checked exactly once (and any reframe offered in one line, not litigated); the problem's canonical name is identified or its absence noted; the hard kernel is named and scheduled first; a fuzzy ask is factored into independent axes each decidable in one word — and you can state, in one sentence, the frame you are now committing to solve. Then hand off to task-planning / architecture-decisions to execute within that frame.