I've had several interchanges that have led me to limit the amount of time I spend trying to help someone. I answered a question on a forum with a series of ot

I've had several interchanges that have led me to limit the amount of time I spend trying to help someone. I answered a question on a forum with a series of other questions ... some were the "what have you tried" variety and some were not. After three or four iterations of "defining" questions and answers, the person I was helping said in exasperation "can't you just give me the code now"? To which I responded, "I don't have the code you need ... but I can help you understand how to write it". The person's response is indicative of a certain type of person that I no longer try to help. He said "thanks for wasting so much of my time". How is educating someone a waste of their time? I guess it might have been more a waste of my time (especially given our relative level of expertise and pay grades). So now I rarely give out code and often tell people up front that I won't. If they want to learn, I'm happy to help them learn and I am constantly amazed at the additional insights I gain during these interchanges. If they don't want to learn, then I just stop the correspondence right away. One interesting side-effect is that I've come to enjoy the few in-person interactions like this much more. Two people and a whiteboard can do a lot of damage to a problem and at the same time, build bridges between those people. Conquering a problem together almost becomes like playing on a team together or fighting in a war (yes ... with far less risk).