Agreed. From painful experience I'm happier with the idea of providing a reading list to somebody than simply trying to come up with some kind of immediate qui

Agreed. From painful experience I'm happier with the idea of providing a reading list to somebody than simply trying to come up with some kind of immediate quick answer to a loosely-worded question. A book author sets the table: he provides background, vocabulary help, and a context. Inside of all of that, he can discuss the issue from multiple angles and provide advice. There's depth: you take time to understand where the author is coming from. In return he provides you in-depth advice in the area you are interested in. More than that: good authors teach you how to think about solving problems in a particular area. Instead of that format, on the net we have hit-and-run McDonalds sagacity. Questioners don't have time for a book. They have some random problem and Google is their friend. As a responder, I'm just some schmuck on the internet, busy doing other things and mostly distracted. I'm taking all of 30 seconds to guess what the person's problem might be, then fitting it all into some random mood and context I brought along with me. No matter how smart I am, it's just not the same. It's useful at times, no doubt, but it's not the same. I don't think the social networking paradigm translates over well to advice-giving. Heck, even with book authors I find that the quality varies quite a bit, and that's folks that take months to address an issue. Again, I'm not saying these sites aren't valuable: I use them all the time. I just think we may put too much stock into the first returns from a Google or SO search. Trying to add structure to the process isn't going to necessarily make it better. If voting and friends work for sharing jokes and links, and they work for forming a community, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are the bedrock for creating a valuable structure to answer repeat questions. When we discuss this we might be like the guy who has a hammer and can do anything -- as long as all the problems are nails. (In other words we know the answer is going to be a tweet or a quick reply reused from a previous question, we just are trying to figure out how big of a hammer/format/magic we need to make it all work)