Don’t tell people to “Google it.” That’s your job, not theirs (2016)

Re:Don’t tell people to “Google it.” That’s your job, not th... by pmiller2 on Sunday November 01, 2020 @07:18PM (#24963752)

I actually think this is a fairly simple thing to teach at work. If I'm being asked a question by a junior, I will frequently go do a few minutes' research, then come back and say "this is the answer, found on these [wiki pages|Slack threads|JIRA tickets|Google docs]. I found it by searching these terms in [appropriate place]." If I'm the one asking, I frequently say "Okay, I can accept that as an answer, but can you show me how you arrived at that?"

Both of these things, when done in good faith, are moves that help the ignorant asker to learn. I've never been put off by a sincere request by someone to show them my work, so to speak. I don't think anyone should be put off by asking something like this sincerely, either.

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Re:Don’t tell people to “Google it.” That’s your job, not th... by sanderjd on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @11:36AM (#24981176)

What I mean by finding it difficult to teach this is that a lot of times it doesn't sink in, or takes a very long time to. Telling people what search terms you used and how you decided what results to click on, and how you distilled what you found in those results into an answer, still does not provide an easy follow path to coming up with search terms for new problems in the future, having good taste in the results to follow, or distilling results into an answer. There is no step by step guide to coming up with search terms, it seems to largely be a function of experience alone.

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