Absolutely concur, 110%. I'm one of those who throws out a few questions every year, so not only do I benefit when I'm able to solicit enhancement to the information I may already have on a project, I very much enjoy the giving back part as well. But there is a line - fuzzy to be sure, but it's there - between "assistance" to those wanting to do their best and those who, as George said, don't have the intellectual energy to take a first stab at it on their own. Give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish ...
Best boss I ever had in that regard was my first. To this day he is one the best designers I ever worked with or for. On staff we had three other people with more than 20 years experience. I could have leaned on that crew to pull me along for my first two years but every time I would run in and ask a question of our design manager, he'd ask me, "did you look in the red book?" Generally, the problem was (even back in the day when it was 65 pages) not knowing where to look. So the first things he taught me directly were how the book was organized and how to use the index in backward English. As in "Piping, protection of". So he taught me to fish. Don't want to beat a dead fish, but that's a far cry from, "I'm designing a double interlock preaction system for a cold storage warehouse with Type IV commodities in racks to 35' in a building that's 42' tall. What density do I use and what does CMSA mean?" -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2011 1:48 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: Flow Test-segue WOW! I look at this forum this way. If someone asks a question that's one of those that isn't all that black and white and I can provide a quick answer, I'll help. If it requires a little more time and I don't have it, I'll pass. If it's one of those that is obvious to me that they just can't be bothered to look in the index of the Standard, I'm not wasting my time. But one thing to consider is that not all companies have training budgets nor do all designers have someone in the next office or cubicle that they can ask for advice or have interpret a technical issue. There are people on here that are from outside the good old USA who operate under conditions of which we could not begin to fathom but they are passionate about their trade and want to do their best. Are they going to come to an AFSA conference or class, very doubtful as that would not be possible. So they turn to sources such as this for assistance. Help when you can and don't begrudge a legitimate desire to learn. I don't believe there are any experts here and one day you may be on the asking end. 'nuff said.................. Craig L. Prahl, CET Fire Protection CH2MHILL Lockwood Greene 1500 International Drive Spartanburg, SC 29304-0491 Direct - 864.599.4102 Fax - 864.599.8439 CH2MHILL Extension 74102 [email protected] _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
