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I disagree. You can definitely be helped to learn how to do this. It is possible to show someone the technique of properly researching a difficult technical pro
by hellofunk 11y ago
I disagree. You can definitely be helped to learn how to do this. It is possible to show someone the technique of properly researching a difficult technical problem.
- MaulingMonkey 11y agoYou can certainly show someone the technique. But it will not help if they don't ever attempt to put said technique to practice. For a given... "repeat customer", I will eventually resort to search links, "What did you try", and then eventually "RTFM", "Google It", etc. - and intentionally not answering the question, to force them to go through the motions - if they don't appear to be doing so.
- khedoros 11y agoI think that's where the need for balance comes in. Lead them to how to find the answer, and provide guidance on how to interpret it...but if they want to be spoon-fed, tell them to go somewhere else. I start out by showing them how to describe their problem in a way that's easily understood by a more experienced programmer. Next would be to tell them some search terms likely to answer their question. If they're still stuck, ask which part is the most confusing and work through that a bit at a time. Of course...this all can get very frustrating. After answering the same questions a dozen times, I often let someone else answer.
- r_sreeram 11y agoAgreed. This is one of the things I appreciated about the now-defunct Google Answers. The professionals there would not only answer your question, but also include a set of steps that they tried, including Google search terms and such. This let you understand their thought process, the things they tried and the places they looked in, as to how they found the answer.