At 03:34 PM 8/7/01 +0000, Mel Matsuoka wrote:
>I find it difficult to believe that anyone could truly be "offended" by
>that webpage, much less feel that it is "mocking" to newbies. I truly
>believe that to be a successful Perl programmer, or even a good programmer
>in general, a sense of humor, sense of humility and a doubly thick skin are
>required. Every moment of emotional energy you spend being "offended" at
>faceless people on the internet is time wasted on otherwise learning
>valuable lessons.
Extremely well said. If it were possible to teach a class or write a book
on how to ask questions, I'd do it. (Maybe I'll try anyway.) Many
questions I get are worse than useless - they force me to unravel the false
assumptions and incorrect terminology before the framework to ask the
question can even exist.
What people will find here is that people who volunteer their time to help
will tend to make as much effort as the people asking the question. Which
is a pretty good equation, considering how far some experts can make that
effort go. But some people in life seem to believe that other people exist
to serve them, and sometimes they show up on a Perl list. To reward that
kind of attitude goes against the grain for anyone who knows how much more
can be gained from expending honest effort. If the result is offense
taken, well, some people are never pleased. The rest of us can act as a
model of what cooperation achieves.
--
Peter Scott
Pacific Systems Design Technologies
http://www.perldebugged.com
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