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I appreciate the discussion this article is bringing to the table, and I mostly agree with it. I'm going to pick on the one thing that I disagree with. The art

I appreciate the discussion this article is bringing to the table, and I mostly agree with it. I'm going to pick on the one thing that I disagree with. The article said that professionals should not say: “why would you want to do that?” I think this question is quite possibly the best thing about asking for help in a programming community. What better way is there to learn about programming than the Socratic Method? What this question means is that the professional is dedicated, not to simply finding the short term answer to the beginner's question, but to helping the beginner actually understand the problem, and what the range of solutions are, and what the best solution might be. It teaches the beginner to not get stuck in a rabbit hole and look at the big picture. It teaches the beginner to do it the right way instead of the easiest most obvious way.

greenyoda 11y ago
Exactly. When I'm helping people solve problems, I find that "why would you want to do that" is one of the most useful questions to ask. The questions that people ask are very frequently about preconceived notions of what the solution to some problem should look like. If you ask about what the actual problem is that they're trying to solve, you might be able to suggest a much better or simpler solution, or inform them that the problem is solved already (e.g., there's a method in the API that does just what they're trying to do).