Re:Ask HN: How do you handle small web/tech requests from fr...
by mindcrime on Monday February 28, 2011 @04:24PM
(#2272990)
By and large, I refuse such requests. Often I dodge it in a subtle (yet true) way by pointing out that I run Linux on all of my own computers, have for years, and therefore have lost touch with the state of Windows admin/repair/etc. This suffices to keep my mom, sister, aunt, etc. from giving me too much grief to help them.
Beyond that, my non-techie friends have basically been trained to not bother asking me, as I pretty much always politely refuse, by pointing out how slammed I am with my day-job and startup project. When you explain to people that you routinely work 80+ hours a week (and it's true) they tend to be more understanding.
That said, if it's a question I can answer without doing any significant research, and if the person has shown some initiative in trying to deal with the problem on their own, and if I actually have a spare moment, I'll occasionally try to help somebody by email or whatever. One of my sister's friends was taking an online class on Java programming, and I answered a few Java questions for her, but I never spent more than 2-3 minutes on it.
Beyond that, my non-techie friends have basically been trained to not bother asking me, as I pretty much always politely refuse, by pointing out how slammed I am with my day-job and startup project. When you explain to people that you routinely work 80+ hours a week (and it's true) they tend to be more understanding.
That said, if it's a question I can answer without doing any significant research, and if the person has shown some initiative in trying to deal with the problem on their own, and if I actually have a spare moment, I'll occasionally try to help somebody by email or whatever. One of my sister's friends was taking an online class on Java programming, and I answered a few Java questions for her, but I never spent more than 2-3 minutes on it.