

Ask HN: How long do you put off getting help on Stack Overflow/Lists/IRC? - danilocampos

From the moment I started programming, I've had a dogged need to solve my own puzzles instead of reaching out for help.<p>If I'm having a challenge with a framework or a new language, I'll sit there and tear my hair out for hours until a steady onslaught of experimentation, Googling, Stack Overflowing and discussion board searches erodes the problem and the dam breaks. It takes longer, but I think it's more fun. Maybe it's a typical nerd control freak thing: I can control the ongoing assault on this problem, but I can't be sure someone will respond to a question in a timeframe that pleases me.<p>Assuming a smart colleague with experience around your challenge isn't nearby and able to set you straight, do you go immediately for community help or is it a last resort? Is my addiction to puzzling things out wasting my time?
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maxklein
In 1999 I used to ask (on usenet), but it has been at least 5 years since I've
encountered a problem for which there was no solution on the net. If you know
how to search, almost all problems already have solutions on the net.

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ryanto
In general, any problem you are having has existed before. Any issues you've
had during development other programmers have had as well. This is especially
true for any popular language/framework/design problem. The programmers that
have had these problems before you will often blog about it, open issue
tickets somewhere, or be vocal on the mailing lists. Google should be able to
answer just about any issue you are having, since it already exists on the web
somewhere. If the search results are slim then chances are you are doing it
wrong or not thinking about the problem correctly.

Of course you may discover a bug or some edge case. In that case feel free to
go out and post about. However, if this is happening once a day, or even once
a week, you are most likely doing it wrong.

Just remember - other people have been in this spot before, what did they do
to fix it?

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evgeny0
It depends on the problem. Of course, I always have a decent shot at it myself
first, but if the problem is easy to describe and is most likely just a case
of knowing some trick I post it fairly quickly. I see nothing wrong with that
- that's what SO is for and it's great at what it does.

If it would take a significant amount of effort to distill the problem to
something that can be described on SO then I'd spend a lot more time trying to
figure it out first. Not only would it take more time to post, but it's also
less likely to get answers and those answers are less likely to be useful.

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cloudwalking
I try to search as much as possible before posting a question. Usually someone
else has had the issue I do. I'd rather find their accumulation of knowledge
and add my own, rather than start another pile.

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Evgeny
An important factor is if I need that to do some paid work and urgently or is
it something without a deadline.

Generally, I would know quite soon by a google search if the problem is a
common one or something very specific. If I see several different solutions, I
may take time to try them before asking. If I see that nothing matches
closely, I would not hesitate and ask.

Of course, if I'm doing something just for my own education, I'm more than
happy to try by myself for any period of time.

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pdelgallego
I use IRC a lot, for both asking and responding other users questions, I also
like to read other people questions in mailing lists.

Asking and responding interesting put me in contact with great programmers,
tools and problems that otherwise I will not be exposed to.

I specially enjoy the emacs IRC and mailing list, I always learn small tricks
that boost my editor knowledge.

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kertap
I do this too.

In my opinion whether you're wasting time comes down to how you're solving the
problem. You shouldn't be doing the same thing over and over again. If
possible you should be learning something new about your application or the
libraries you are using. You should be taking notes because you will probably
run into this problem again.

