early_riser1d ago

Why is stack overflow so horrible?

https://lemmy.world/post/45176647

Why is stack overflow so horrible? - Lemmy.World

Especially in my early days venturing into Python (with which I am still only casually acquainted), I’d google a problem and end up on an SO question outlining my exact problem, only see “closed as duplicate” or a bunch of snarky comments about how the questioner didn’t RTFM or whatever. Why do they hate people asking questions on this site specifically about asking questions? Part of being a noob is not just about not knowing the bare facts of a thing, but not knowing where to look for answers or even what to ask. While I’m on this soapbox, I hate it when people say “just google it.” because most of the time I see that phrase it’s because that forum post is the first google result.

Show threadBoomer Humor Doomergod1d ago

The folks who say “just google it” are often unaware of how their own experience allows them to determine good instructions from bad.

For instance, if I told you to flummox the bumdarten by fluxing the foogartner, how would you begin learning what any of those words mean? How will you know if the bumdarten docs you’ve found are even the current version?

But at some point we have all encountered someone who simply asks for help instead of figuring out how to do it. And those people are usually in management.

Show threadfuckwit_mcbumcrumble1d ago

Anyone who unironically says just google it, and doesn’t google it themselves and provides a link to a concise answer should be shot on sight.

Same for the RTFM crowd. So many manuals are filled with so much fluff that just gets in the way of actually being useful.

Show threadTywèle
And sometimes it impossible to google something if you don’t know the correct keywords to find what you are looking for.
Apr 4 at 9:40pmWeb
Show threadearly_riser1d ago
Yes. I tell people that IT isn’t about knowing the answer right away, it’s about knowing which questions to ask, where to ask those questions, and how to interpret the results. These skills are in no way obvious if you aren’t familiar with the system you’re working with.
Show threadMerryJaneDoe22h ago

Another thing about seasoned professionals - they have top-down and bottom-up knowledge of how their product works. They can discard a lot of superfluous information out of hand, which allows them to narrow the scope very quickly.

So when a newb is parsing an error log, they look at any and all related errors. 90% of their mental capacity is being used to judge each entry, asking themselves “Is this thing relevant to the problem?” Chasing red herrings.

Meanwhile, the senior engineer can glance over and see the 100 lines of network errors are just an uncaught exception from a deprecated module because a line of code never got commented out. Or some such shit.