What kind of questions are allowed here?

Question

My question has been closed for being off topic. The reasons are:

If you are asking a general question about what changes will occur in your life from playing musical instruments, this is out-of-scope.

And this:

this question is too broad.

And this:

yes, it is a simple question, but it needs to get more complex before it can be answered. You are looking for causation, right? That is difficult to prove without a major (randomly controlled) experiment. What does "more productive" mean? If you could reduce the bug-density in your code by 10% by practising the violin six hours per day, would you be more productive or less productive? That's setting aside "inspire my creativity" as even less measurable.

It seems to me that the mods want me to ask a question towards a study that I don't-yet-know, only then it is an on topic question.

But if I could ask such a question, I could have googled the answer, there is no need for me to ask here.

Also, the FAQ says that:

If you have a question about the accuracy of public claims made in the media or elsewhere, if you're interested in the evidence behind what you hear or read, then you are in the right place.

Don't you think that my question is perfectly valid for this forum?

Answer 1

Your question is definitely too vague for this site, and in particular:

What is the notable claim you are skeptical of?

1. That Einstein credited his insights to violin playing (a historical question)
2. That "activating several brain areas simultaneously" increases brain power, as claimed on the site you link

In your comments, you seem to be skeptical of neither:

I think my question is perfectly clear, and I don't understand what do you mean by out-of-scope concern. Can playing musical instruments boost my IQ, or inspire my creativity, or in any way make me more productive as a scientist/entrepreneur/programmer?-- this is a simple question that couldn't get simpler. Yes, or no, and what is the evidence. How hard it could get?

So that alone would make your question off-topic, because this is not a notable claim.

From our FAQ:

Skeptics - Stack Exchange is for challenging unreferenced notable claims

Also

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

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.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here

Also, it's not a simple yes/no question as you make it, it's a multiple, overly broad question, and to spell it out:

• Can playing any musical instrument boost my IQ?
• Can playing any musical instrument inspire my creativity?
• Can playing any musical instrument in any way make me more productive?

All of these questions should be answered as a scientist, as an enterpreneur or as a programmer.

Furthermore some bits of it have obvious answers. "Can playing a musical instrument inspire my creativity?" -- it sure can for someone, whatever rocks your boat. It sure does for musicians, so why not? So again, the question invites speculative answers and discussion, because it's too broad and generic.