This is such a bad piece of advice and his story just frames it to make it look sensible. As "buckbloa" mentioned, "> Spend more time trying to figure things o

This is such a bad piece of advice and his story just frames it to make it look sensible. As "buckbloa" mentioned, "> Spend more time trying to figure things out for yourself before asking for help. Isn't this obvious and don't most developers want to do this?" The author paints it as if it is a categorical thing but it really isn't. You need to spend time understanding your problem and trying to figure things out. When you go to ask someone for help, it is important to demonstrate that you've at least put some effort into understanding the issues involved. It saves the other person time and effort when you do that and make you not look like a total slacker. "wyc"'s mantra is good rule of thumb. I'm totally with him on not wanting to work with "rockstars" and other egotistical people. People work in teams for good reasons. This isn't elementary school where they make you work on a team just for the sake for being on a team.