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I asked the following question a few days ago, which has since been put on hold as too broad.

I'm having trouble seeing in what way the question is too broad due to the fact I'm talking about a very specific problem for a specific set of systems, and that there are most definitely experts on SU who know this field and can answer it. In fact,I went to such great lengths to make sure the question wasn't broad that I included all the possible answers that I knew of in my question, to the point that the question could satisfactorily be answered with a slightly elaborated "yes".

Given the above, I'm wondering what reason there is for the question to be considered too broad.

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  • The system generally shows only the most common close reason if multiple reasons have been used. Also, the canned comment for each close reason sometimes isn't a good explanation for a specific case. Some questions can be a bad fit for the site for multiple different reasons and reviewers pick one basis. At least my own close vote was because the question wasn't on-topic for the site (which I elaborated on in a comment on the question).
    – fixer1234
    Commented Mar 18, 2018 at 0:08
  • On top of the reasons outlined by Twisty your question is essentially asking for opinions of how the world will be in 20 years time and how you should prepare. That isn't really a problem with computers, it's a problem with you fitting in to the world as it will exist. Questions should preferably be about problems you are currently facing so that they do not devolve into guesses and conjecture.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Mar 18, 2018 at 19:04
  • From Help: What types of questions should I avoid asking?: "You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page." Specifically your questions should be about computer hardware or software (within the scope of the site) that you have available in front of you and can actually use. What you should learn is a meatware problem, not a software or hardware one.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Mar 18, 2018 at 19:04

1 Answer 1

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Your question is closed because its answer(s) would include a substantial opinion-based element.

Your question is well researched and well written, so if there's a reason it's closed I think it's because of these two queries:

I'm wondering how I - as a 20-something today - can start to prepare myself to do the work that these experts refer to in the years running up to 2038. In other words, what specific work will said "lucrative contracts" actually involve doing?

And:

What technologies/languages should I start learning now to prepare myself?

I feel like several answers to these questions could be submitted but I suspect they would involve a significant element of subjectivity, e.g., I think you'll best position yourself by learning X and doing Y, followed by another answer saying the same thing but with a different X and Y.

Therein lies the problem. How can the community decide which answer is correct? Not correct for you, but definitively correct--for you and others with the same question. I don't think we could. That makes the answer only useful for you and unfortunately not a good fit for the Q&A format of the site. Based on this I would have voted to close it as Primarily opinion based.

You would improve the question by dropping the text of the second query. You would probably also need to reconsider asking what specific work "lucrative contracts" would involve as that might require too much conjecture on the answerer's part, though I'm not certain because I don't know the answer myself.

Perhaps some others could provide more feedback to help you determine whether there's still a core of your question that would be on-topic for Super User.

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  • I'll concede that the second question could be subjective, so I'll remove it, but it's frustrating that everyone has missed the point entirely regarding the crux of my question - asking what specific work said lucrative contracts will involve. I believe this is due to the fact that there's a very small percentage of SU users who can actually understand/answer the question, and therefore that those who have voted on it are basing their opinions on the terms I've used in it - terms which just happen to typically betray a subjective question. I regret including peripheral details like money...
    – Hashim Aziz
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 1:51
  • ...and age for this reason, because it's no doubt what primarily triggered said reactions. The only thing such details inform are my motivations; they have no bearing on the actual answer, which will be the exact same for anyone that's asking it. Anyone who understands the topic and/or who's done the research I have on it would know this, and would know that the answer is as technical and non-conjectural as it can be; it's an outcome definitively known by the experts who know the topic, as evidenced by its being alluded to in the many research materials I've looked at (including a...
    – Hashim Aziz
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 1:51
  • ...45-min lecture by one of the core Linux kernel developers). The only thing left to answer is which of the technical possibilities I've narrowed the question down to is actually the answer to my question. In any case, based on the reaction to this question so far, it's become clear to me that SU isn't the place for it. I see that there's already tags for both timet and year2038 on SO, so in that vein, I've flagged the question to be migrated there. Thank you for your help.
    – Hashim Aziz
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 1:51
  • @Hashim you might have removed one of the questions that were subjective, but you have left a significant block that is still asking for conjecture in the centre of your question. You even bolded half of it which essentially says "this is the most important thing to me". That entire paragraph could do with removing.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 8:00
  • @Mokubai I've already explained in considerable detail with the comments above yours why that part of the question is not at all subjective - I don't intend to reproduce those three comments again. It requires a knowledge of the subject matter to understand why it's not a subjective question nor asks for a subjective answer, which is why it's been received so badly on SU and exactly why I've asked for the question to be moved to SO, where there will be experts that are aware of what the question means and will also be able to answer it.
    – Hashim Aziz
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 20:08
  • @Hashim I clearly know my opinion means absolutely nothing, however, I absolutely agree with Mokubai. You want us to speculate on what companies, will be willing to pay for, in the future to update what likely is their own code. Nobody will pay to update the Linux kernel or any package they can update themselves which only leaves places like Redhat or Oracle with a future problem (but not really due to their downstream support community)
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 22, 2018 at 7:03

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