It's very easy for RTFM to sound dismissive, but after a while of being a young hacker, I realized it had a zen like quality. The answer to life's hardest probl

It's very easy for RTFM to sound dismissive, but after a while of being a young hacker, I realized it had a zen like quality. The answer to life's hardest problems isn't found by asking others; It is by searching inside yourself and Google. It took me a while to understand, and I imagine others have had the same problem. Flow is important to programmers, as is self-reliance. Interrupting others for questions is generally a bad idea for both you and them. At the same time, telling others not to interrupt can be discouraging and dismissive, so it's a fine line to walk to tell people who are learning to go away. You must do so in a supportive manner, and there's no simple solution to that. Any one solution you take only lasts for a limited time before it sounds trite and dismissive.