Friction Between Programming Professionals and Beginners

Re:Friction Between Programming Professionals and Beginners by krschultz on Wednesday February 10, 2016 @12:02PM (#11074130)

Yes, it is the answer I would give to a 12 year old girl.

First off, why does your 12 year old have to be a girl? You are spouting off about diversity but you basically just used the stereotype that teenage girls are going to cry if you give them the hard truth. Why do we have to treat single mothers with kid gloves? Guess what, diving through some docs is a lot easier than anything a parent has to put up with.

3 of the 4 interns at the company I work for were women last summer, and they kicked ass. While they weren't 12 years old, they were young, and I had no issue telling them to start at the documentation.

There is a massive difference between "read the fucking manual" and suggesting "even if it takes longer, you will be better served starting with the documentation and working through that than googling or using stack overflow". One is bullying, one is teaching.

I always teach my interns to start with the docs. Give the docs 30 minutes before you Google or Stack Overflow. Give that 30 minutes before you ask a senior engineer. Struggling through it is part of the process of learning. The things you learn by going through the docs will help you later.

Or the shorter version, I want to hire someone that can answer Stack Overflow posts not find them.

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Re:Friction Between Programming Professionals and Beginners by ktRolster on Wednesday February 10, 2016 @12:24PM (#11074295)

  > I always teach my interns to start with the docs.
  > Give the docs 30 minutes before you Google or 
  > Stack Overflow. Give that 30 minutes before
  > you ask a senior engineer. Struggling through 
  > it is part of the process of learning. The 
  > things you learn by going through the docs will
  > help you later.

This is a skill I wish more programmers had.

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Re:Friction Between Programming Professionals and Beginners by Shog9 on Wednesday February 10, 2016 @12:05PM (#11074143)

Re: your shorter version... Answering questions tends to be a pretty solid way to learn about a topic. I've talked to quite a few people whose experience on Stack Overflow was that they learned more about the topic they were working in by trying to answer others' questions than by asking questions themselves.

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