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Re: Perl "expert"

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From:
merlyn
Date:
August 19, 2009 08:29
Subject:
Re: Perl "expert"
Message ID:
86ljlf2561.fsf@blue.stonehenge.com
>>>>> "Raymond" == Raymond Wan <r.wan@aist.go.jp> writes:

Raymond> Of course, blind leading the blind is a bad thing.  But the intention
Raymond> was good and the admission of not being an expert was offered at the
Raymond> same time.  Maybe all I'm saying is "admonish, but admonish with
Raymond> restraint"; the person being admonish could be the next expert some
Raymond> day...if given the chance...  ;-)

Unfortunately, there is voluminous evidence my level of admonishment has
nearly nothing to do with the person I'm correcting, and a lot more to do with
my mood of the day.

I do escalate pretty quickly.  If someone gets one thing wrong, I'll be curt,
and say "that doesn't work, please test before you post".  If I notice they do
it a second time, I'll generally escalate to "you're hurting more than you're
helping.  test before you post."  And after a third time, I bring out the
cluebats.

Luckily, that's pretty rare, but there *does* seem to be a class of people who
think they know more than they do, consistently.  And when one of those
wanders into a help gathering, it can be a real pile of work for those of us
who *actually* know.

And I'm with Uri here... I definitely do *not* answer anything that I haven't
had experience with, unless I preface my answer with "I think..."  so that
Smarter People(tm) can check my work.  If only everyone followed that rule,
life would be simpler. :)

-- 
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn@stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Smalltalk/Perl/Unix consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
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