what's the difference between "Great work" and "I really liked how you tackled this" ?
I assume it's a sports analogy for american football or similar. If you try to tackle an opposing player and you miss or do a bad job, "I really liked how you tackled <player>" is clearly talking about the work, not the effort. If you were talking about the effort, it should be something like, "that was a good attempt!" It's kind of like, "Nice shot!" when the person actually missed the goal. It just doesn't make sense.
I think their point (in this discussion here) can make sense and remain true to the point (made in the example statement) by adjusting the feedback segue to something like "I really [appreciate that] you tackled this".
Tackling is analogous to achieving. To put effort into and complete. To complete a tough subject. “to seize, take hold of, or grapple with especially with the intention of stopping or subduing”
Webster’s 1913 (as in, the 1913 edition of the dictionary) relates this sense as “grappling with”, as in wrestling, and provides an example from a Dublin University publication to illustrate this exact idiomatic usage we’re discussing.
Because "tackling a problem" is about the approach. That's how the phrase is commonly understood. The Webster's reference is just backup.
Dictionary.com provides "Make determined efforts to deal with (a problem or difficult task)." As the first verb form, before the football/rugby definition.
Further, the hn guidelines suggest that even if there was more ambiguity, we should presume the strongest interpretation.
I cited an old source to make it clearer that this is not a new sense, and that its entry into English probably had nothing to do with American Football, which existed in 1913 but was still far from being the sport of the US.
I’d have cited the OED instead, if I had access. I bet it’s got examples of this usage dating back to 1500 or something. It’s simply a sense of the word, now, hardly even figurative at all (as “grapple” barely is, in some similar senses, now)
The latter provides a tiny bit more detail about what you are praising. It is still lacking in concrete details though and can be improved by adding more about what you liked about why you liked how they tackled it.
I assume it's a sports analogy for american football or similar. If you try to tackle an opposing player and you miss or do a bad job, "I really liked how you tackled <player>" is clearly talking about the work, not the effort. If you were talking about the effort, it should be something like, "that was a good attempt!" It's kind of like, "Nice shot!" when the person actually missed the goal. It just doesn't make sense.