Bad question asking and my other pet peeve

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amhndu wrote:
@keskiverto
Zeroth law what ?
[earlier:]
andywestken wrote:
Is there a new release of this list about somewhere, with:

0.Ask for a potted answer on cplusplus.com before wasting your time doing any real research or other work.
keskiverto wrote:
I did check the ESR version http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html and no Zeroth Law was there.
Yes.

@amhndu: add Asimov to your search ...
On reflection, maybe the fact that beginner programmers frequently ask the same questions should be seen as a good thing.

If they weren't asking questions it would mean either:

1. They are very clever and can figure things out for themselves, using trial and error and reference material as intended.

2. They have obtained their solutions by secretive, foul means. Googling can be used for good or bad...

Now, there are going to be some people in category 1...

But the category 3 beginners

3. They obtain the information they require by asking lot of questions, rather than reading, trial and error, etc.

are prob. better than category 2

Of course, there are people who are a mixture of these (who only cheat a bit, who are a bit clever, ... ?)

Andy

PS Plagiarism detection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism_detection

It says "MOSS and JPlag can be used free of charge, but both require registration". If it wasn't for the reigstration, I'd give it a go... (To see if I've inadvertently nicked stuff!)


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closed account (3qX21hU5)
I can agree with that some people learn by asking a lot of questions, which I have no problem with at all. What I do have a problem with is people that ask first and think later. Why should we put in our time to help someone that hasn't even given their own problem any thought?

What I was more directing my post at was how it is instinctive for people to automatically come to a forum or some other resource to ask others for help even when it is a very minor problem.

By that I mean instead of taking 10-20 minutes to really think through the problem, look through the code in this case for mistakes, ect. They automatically jump right to asking others for help.

This just puzzles me why so many new programmers go straight to asking questions and demanding answers instead of taking a little while to think about the problem and how to fix it.

The reason why I don't get it is because all programming is is fixing problems. Plain and simple. So if you don't like fixing problems why get into programming? If you hit a point in your assignment where you don't understand how to do something, that is a problem for you to solve (Keyword is YOU), and your first reaction shouldn't be "Oh well I'll go to cplusplus.com and ask them how to solve it".

I just don't get why it is such a normal reaction for people to ask first and think after...
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closed account (N36fSL3A)
Probably they're used to being spoon fed by their college instructors.
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