Mine is something like this (Where my goal is to get the answer as fast as I can) : 1. Think quickly 2. Search google the fastest possible way (Even if keywor

Mine is something like this (Where my goal is to get the answer as fast as I can) : 1. Think quickly 2. Search google the fastest possible way (Even if keywords are pretty bad) 3. Search google with the best possible keywords I know 4. With help of results from 3 (In forum/etc.), Research google with new keywords that will improve results 5. Do step 3-4 until I see I can't improve anymore 6. Go directly talking to the best who will know about it. (Which is usually IRC or GitHub issues, etc.) For most non-trivial problems, I spend times in 1-5. But for lots of problem (like configuring stuff in Linux), I spend lots of time in 2-5. For really rare stuff, I would go up to 6 (Which usually means I found a bug in the library and I'd send a patch). I'm a bit ashamed by this.. but, I think I spend too much time in 3-5.. after a couple minutes, I think I should just RTFM and figure it out.. but I kind of become crazy and just search search search search until I get the answer I want. Only then, when I have a 90% correct solution, will I read the manual to extrapolate on this. But hey, that's my way.. :)