Our first response to a question is;What did the manual say?
Our second response is:Don't use ChatGPT
On Wednesday, October 15, 2025 at 12:59:09 PM EDT, Jousma, David
<[email protected]> wrote:
Changed the subject to keep Darren’s feathers down…
As entrenched system programmers most of us are from decades of experience, we
really need to take a softer tone that some here have mentioned. First off,
let’s not scare away newbies from the platform, but sometimes just a pointer to
which manual they can go looking at is all that is needed.
My mentor used to ask me what I was looking at that I didn’t understand. And
if I replied that I hadn’t looked, well then he pointed me to the manual.
For me, I’ve learned more about everything else by searching the manual for
what I really wanted. After awhile it all starts to fit together.
_______________________________
Dave Jousma
Vice President | Director, Technology Engineering
Fifth Third Bank | 1830 East Paris Ave, SE | Grand Rapids, MI 49546
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of
Seymour J Metz <[email protected]>
Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2025 at 12:44 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Political topics
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I used to phrase it as "Which part of the explanation is unclear"; maybe they
legit did RTFM and the information was ambiguous or flat wrong.
Yes, that last does happen, and I can't reaonably expect a user to recognize
and deal with it.
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
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עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי
נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר
________________________________________
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Jay
Maynard <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2025 9:34 AM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Political topics
External Message: Use Caution
I try hard to always say which FM and where the information is in it when
saying RTFM.
On Wed, Oct 15, 2025 at 8:06 AM Seymour J Metz <[email protected]> wrote:
> Always verify that the relevant information is in TFM before saying RTFM.
> In fact, verify that it is not hidden away.
>
--
Jay Maynard
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