

Back when not every question had an answer - Jonhoo
http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/2013/03/29/2b2k-back-when-not-every-question-had-an-answer/

======
trotsky
I got my first real computer around 1982 as well, a Heathkit/Zenith Z-100.
Thinking back, I'm amazed at the amount of high quality documentation that
came with it. Full schematics, lengthy component level trouble shooting
workflows, s-100 bus signaling documentation, component sources, multiple
manuals for dos, 8086 and 8085 assembly, qbasic, cp/m, ande each compiler's
docs took 2 or 3 3 ring binders.

One time we had trouble with it and had to take it to the dealer, who after
discussing the problem with us showed us how he tracked down a poor solder
joint and taught me (at 9 years old) how to use a wick to remove the solder
and replace it.

There was also a local user group that drew 50-100 folks a month and always
had 1-2 technical talks, and at least a dozen local bulletin boards that were
frequented by well educated users and engineers.

My most recent computer came with a tiny brochure about how to power it on,
and the user forums primarily contain copypasta about repairing disk
permissions or resetting the SMC.

So, you know, there are plusses and minuses.

------
niggler
The problem shifted from "solution is hard to find" to "solutions are abound,
but its hard to find the best". Github has lots of code, and its really
difficult to tell what are the best solutions (and of course, there's the
whole issue of marketing, where some stuff that show up highly on google or
github searches aren't the best but rather the most highly marketed)

~~~
mirkules
There is also a specific set of problems that require a question to be formed
in, what I like to call "Google Gymnastics Language" - i.e. a unique problem
space that uses common words to describe it so you have to alter your query.
For example, searching problems in "CLIPS" programming language or tabs in
Foundation (<https://www.google.com/search?q=foundation+4+tabs>).

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newobj
On the contrary I feel great pity for people who grow up only knowing an
entirely searchable world. There was so much magic and excitement when things
were unknown, secret, mysterious.

Specifically trying to solve the kind of problem discussed by the OP, yes it
was frustrating as hell but it taught tenacity, resourcefulness, and was
ultimately SO satisfying when you figured it out.

Now you just google and get pissed if the first result doesn't have a
copy/paste answer to your problem.

~~~
r00fus
No, now you google and if you don't find a good answer you post to yahoo
answers/stackexchange and start a discussion with other folks who are
experiencing the same issues (or experts in that topic).

Eventually this gets indexed and google's capabilities to answer increase.

~~~
hackernewbie
Yahoo Answers. Amazing. Have you recently visited their Programming & Design
section? How does that community survive?

~~~
r00fus
Not all questions are programming questions. For non-programming questions
(ie, baby health questions), it does ok.

~~~
ibudiallo
I use Google to find yahoo answers.

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mtoddh
This article reminds of me of Chris Goggans' closing editorial in Phrack 48
[1] where he made a similar point about how much things had changed with
regards to being able to access and learn about computers:

    
    
      "In this day and age, you really don't have to do anything illegal to be
       a hacker.  It is well within the reach of everyone to learn more, and use
       more powerful computers legally than any of us from the late 70's and early
       80's ever dreamed.  Way back then, it was ALL about learning how to use these
       crazy things called computers.  There were hundreds of different types of
       systems, hundreds of different networks, and everyone was starting from ground
       zero.  There were no public means of access; there were no books in stores or
       library shelves espousing arcane command syntaxes; there were no classes
       available to the layperson.  We were locked out."
    

[1]
[http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=48&id=2#article](http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=48&id=2#article)

------
ambiate
I would say that finding solutions to problems on the internet is still far
from moving beyond its infancy. We are very lucky, but there is much more to
come.

------
chandraonline
I think the problem has transformed to "how best to state a problem to find
the best solution"

~~~
Jonhoo
Which is a very very useful skill to have in its own right

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lutusp
Not to complain about the information richness of the modern Internet, but
it's gradually becoming more difficult to find useful information, as more and
more real content is pushed aside by advertising.

Nothing annoys me more than to click a search result link, only to be taken to
one of those parasitic sites that pretends to have useful content through the
simple device of including a lot of words with no relevance to its actual
content. Inevitably such a site is ranked higher in the search results than
one with real information.

------
orangethirty
Good information is still scarce. That is why self R&D is the best method to
collect quality data. Building a search engine has reay opened my eyes to
this. There is a lot of bad data. Nowadays, I think the effort is more on
understanding which data is valuable and trustworthy. Which simply takes more
effort than findings things out by yourself. Reason why I don't search github
for good python code, but rather read/view videos about python directly and
learn how to write good code by myself.

~~~
ilaksh
Bullshit. At least 70% of the time I have a specific problem Google will come
up with an article or a StackOverflow that solves that problem. And
StackOverflow has the best answers sorted to the top.

~~~
orangethirty
If you are looking for answer related to software. Yes, its effective. Try
other subjects. You will not have such luck.

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websitescenes
If you find answers that easy, then you are asking the wrong questions. Every
time I have asked a question on the internet about programming, it has never
been answered and I had to figure it out myself. Nobody will be answering the
real tough questions about programming on the internet.

I agree that the easy basic questions are all over the internet but once you
get beyond fundamentals the answers are hard to find with that method.

~~~
46Bit
I've felt this myself as well. When I get to the point of being stuck on a
question, it is often in such a niche that getting help on it is very
difficult.

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colanderman
You know, I had this same exact problem with TI-BASIC on the TI-99/4A. Try as
I might to follow the documentation's examples, I couldn't open files. (Keep
in mind these files were on tape!) 20 years on I never did figure it out…

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ErikAugust
You really don't have to go back that far. There was no Stack Overflow in my
VB and C days (1995/1996). You bought a huge reference book.

~~~
bluedino
There was IRC, comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.misc, and AOL/Compuserve had a
ton of Windows programming resources as well.

------
Dewie
> Let me remind you young whippersnappers what looking for knowledge was like
> before the Internet

What, like, teenagers? Because practically everyone 25 or older, arguably
everyone older than 20, knows what it was like to search for information
without the web.

