The "late surprise" problem

[Keith Moore]

> rather than debating the problem, I decided to follow the time-honored 
> principle of "when in doubt, do something", and created the 
> "solutions at alvestrand.no" list.

Sigh.  Even if this is not official, I fear that this will distract 
valuable energy from the problem determination effort.

I can understand the occasional foray into potential solution space.  
But why is it that we cannot take the time to gain a comprehensive 
understanding of our problem before we start investing much more energy 
on solutions?

Maybe this is IETF's primary problem?