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Knowing how to use Google really well so I can find answers to bugs, tutorials, code snippets, etc. Learned the importance of this from a wise older Chinese pro

Knowing how to use Google really well so I can find answers to bugs, tutorials, code snippets, etc. Learned the importance of this from a wise older Chinese programmer at my first job ever, an internship: "I don't really know how to code anything, I just copy it from Google."

greenyoda 10y ago
I agree that being able to search effectively for information is an important skill - I do it quite a bit. But if someone doesn't really know how to code anything, doesn't that imply that they don't really understand how anything really works? And if you don't understand how something works, how can you fix it when something inevitably goes wrong?
- kafkaesq 10y ago
  Of course you have to understand how things work. But in terms of getting things done, search engines can be amazingly helpful. But if someone doesn't really know how to code anything, doesn't that imply that they don't really understand how anything really works? Just because you know how to code doesn't mean you have to grind your gears doing root cause analysis on every obscure error message that bubbles up -- when about 80% of the time you can just paste the message into a search engine, and get a pretty good understanding within about 30 seconds. And save your precious grey matter-accessible calories for the other 20%. In fact, in many roles you'd be crippling yourself (and wasting your employers money) if you didn't know how to use search engines effectively.
marmot777 10y ago
I've seen several references to Google magic. Give a quick tutorial or provide a couple examples? I know you can do things like +this or -that and other sort of basics for more precision. I'm guessing I've barely scratched the google search service. You guys are at Google Level 12 or something. :-)
- unlikelymordant 10y ago
  I have found site:reddit.com can be good to restrict results to a certain site. Inurl: if you know a bit of text in the url. Filetype:pdf can be handy if you only want e.g. powerpoint presentations. Beyond that I think it is just knowing what things are called so you can search directly for things. For open directories you can use intitle:index.of last.modified booktitle

greenyoda 10y ago

I agree that being able to search effectively for information is an important skill - I do it quite a bit. But if someone doesn't really know how to code anything, doesn't that imply that they don't really understand how anything really works? And if you don't understand how something works, how can you fix it when something inevitably goes wrong?

kafkaesq 10y ago
Of course you have to understand how things work. But in terms of getting things done, search engines can be amazingly helpful. But if someone doesn't really know how to code anything, doesn't that imply that they don't really understand how anything really works? Just because you know how to code doesn't mean you have to grind your gears doing root cause analysis on every obscure error message that bubbles up -- when about 80% of the time you can just paste the message into a search engine, and get a pretty good understanding within about 30 seconds. And save your precious grey matter-accessible calories for the other 20%. In fact, in many roles you'd be crippling yourself (and wasting your employers money) if you didn't know how to use search engines effectively.

marmot777 10y ago

I've seen several references to Google magic. Give a quick tutorial or provide a couple examples? I know you can do things like +this or -that and other sort of basics for more precision. I'm guessing I've barely scratched the google search service. You guys are at Google Level 12 or something. :-)

unlikelymordant 10y ago
I have found site:reddit.com can be good to restrict results to a certain site. Inurl: if you know a bit of text in the url. Filetype:pdf can be handy if you only want e.g. powerpoint presentations. Beyond that I think it is just knowing what things are called so you can search directly for things. For open directories you can use intitle:index.of last.modified booktitle