> would this be the answer you give to a 12 year old girl who's taken an early interest in programming? Or a single mother who's trying to switch careers to imp

> would this be the answer you give to a 12 year old girl who's taken an early interest in programming? Or a single mother who's trying to switch careers to improve her lot in life? Or your own mother, for that matter? Yes, yes, and yes. The best thing you can do for someone is show them their questions already have been answered because they have access to a massive, growing body of human knowledge. > Is it really constructive to be so abrasive? It's amazing that telling someone their questions have already been answered is abrasive. Now, I am going to be abrasive, because I'm not talking to a beginner. > Try to remember what it was like when you were first starting out with programming. Ya, someone was going to to bring that up, like there is some sob story everyone has not being able to read documentation. I'm not a programmer. I have to look up all sorts of beginner stuff all the time. Always have because I don't spend a lot of time getting better at it. I don't ever have to ask questions, and I haven't from before StackOverflow or where ever programmers asked questions before, because any question or issue I had had already been asked and answered (over and over). My problems have been encountered by everyone else at the same level of experience as I am. And because I do search for answers, I don't have to wait for someone to come along to answer. Answering the same questions over and over without telling them they could have found the answer themselves is giving a man a fish. Your not learning simply being told answers. > Ever been to a foreign country and have someone berate you for ... not knowing how to speak their language well enough? No I speak English so I expect everyone else to as well. This is apparently appropriate behavior since it is appropriate to expect everyone else around me to answer ever question I will ever have without ever having to do any work or research of my own.