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Evan Carroll
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How come you can ask "Howan unqualified "how do youI do X$x?"

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Evan Carroll
  • 9.3k
  • 15
  • 10

How come you can ask "How do you do X?"

This is in response to this question

I'm going to try one more way to address this. How come you can't ask,

  • Does $x exist?

But you can ask,

  • How do I do $x?

The question,

  • Do any 4TB single-sided NVME drives exist?

Is subject to the answer being "no" and the answer "yes" will require a specific example of existence for qualification and acceptance.

However, Is that not also true of many questions in the form?

  • "How do I .."

In most instances, if you're asking an unbounded "how" you don't know that it can be done. You're assuming it can be done. Moreover, it's not tied to a product you're going to open the the answers up to demonstrating how this can be done, using usually an unspecified tool... Examples,

This isn't all the questions: it's a very enumerated list. And it doesn't include questions that omit the "how do I" and leave it implicit,

While slightly awkward in English if,

  • How do I download all Flickr sets/images?

is acceptable and open to suggestions of products that may fit that function, if they exist. Would this be acceptable,

  • How do I upgrade my laptop's NVME hard drive past 4 GB, none of the drives fit?

As it would also only be solved with at least a suggestion of a product that may fit the needs I have?