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How about figuring it out by reading the answers and analyzing them? Using my brain to critically assess what people tell me has always worked for me, and I us

by orib 18y ago

How about figuring it out by reading the answers and analyzing them? Using my brain to critically assess what people tell me has always worked for me, and I usually -- for any nontrivial problem -- end up combining the ideas from all the (correct) answers. As for finding them later, I find searchable archives work wonders for that.

bootload 18y ago
"... How about figuring it out by reading the answers and analyzing them? Using my brain to critically assess what people tell me has always worked for me ..." Sure you can. But is there a better way? Can your way scale? Will your brainpower & intelligence be recorded and replayed for others? Look at it another way. Would you take this approach to evaluating other types of information, links for example? Would you make a list of all the good websites and organising them for others to read? Or would you organise links utilising computers, software & inferred information form humans to do the same thing. Yahoo vs Google?
- orib 18y ago
  Would you make a list of all the good websites and organising them for others to read? Aren't you posting on a site that does just that? Manual contributions of stuff that people found interesting? Or were you thinking more of something like bookmarks in my web browser?
  - bootload 18y ago
    "... Aren't you posting on a site that does just that? Manual contributions of stuff that people found interesting? ..." And at the same time illustrating the point of a Usenet Q drifting from the point and increasing the noise :)
fendale 18y ago
The thing that got me excited about StackOver flow was that it was announced just a few days after I spent days attempting to dredge information out of those Bulletin board type forums where there are 100's of non threaded replies/discussions to a question (and the experts are reluctant to help the noobs). If only the correct answer could bubble to the surface, or the question asker would take the time to update the question with the discovered answer, so I reckoned Stack Overflow sounded like a great idea. I have not used it yet, but I reckon it will solve more problems than it causes. Jeff and Joels podcast and current following didn't have solve the chicken and egg problem either, so they are off to a good start!

by orib 18y ago

bootload 18y ago

"... How about figuring it out by reading the answers and analyzing them? Using my brain to critically assess what people tell me has always worked for me ..." Sure you can. But is there a better way? Can your way scale? Will your brainpower & intelligence be recorded and replayed for others? Look at it another way. Would you take this approach to evaluating other types of information, links for example? Would you make a list of all the good websites and organising them for others to read? Or would you organise links utilising computers, software & inferred information form humans to do the same thing. Yahoo vs Google?

orib 18y ago
Would you make a list of all the good websites and organising them for others to read? Aren't you posting on a site that does just that? Manual contributions of stuff that people found interesting? Or were you thinking more of something like bookmarks in my web browser?
- bootload 18y ago
  "... Aren't you posting on a site that does just that? Manual contributions of stuff that people found interesting? ..." And at the same time illustrating the point of a Usenet Q drifting from the point and increasing the noise :)

fendale 18y ago

The thing that got me excited about StackOver flow was that it was announced just a few days after I spent days attempting to dredge information out of those Bulletin board type forums where there are 100's of non threaded replies/discussions to a question (and the experts are reluctant to help the noobs). If only the correct answer could bubble to the surface, or the question asker would take the time to update the question with the discovered answer, so I reckoned Stack Overflow sounded like a great idea. I have not used it yet, but I reckon it will solve more problems than it causes. Jeff and Joels podcast and current following didn't have solve the chicken and egg problem either, so they are off to a good start!