Matthew Sims wrote: > I promised myself that I wouldn't get in the middle of any flame wars but > I just had to say something about my experience. > > The day I stopped looking for free handouts and became self-sufficient in > my ability to find the answers myself was the day someone told me to RTFM > a few years ago. It was a friend of mine and it was a little hurtful. But > he was right! The answer was right in the man page. > > Then I felt stupid for asking. > > Since then my skills at troubleshooting went through the roof. You can > literally train yourself to be a walking encyclopedia not by knowing the > answer but by knowing how to find the answer without anyones help. > > Sometimes it takes a mean push to get someone on the right track. You > might not like it but you can't deny the results it can bring. Your skills grow even more when you start answering questions you understand, or parroting the answers to questions you didn't understand, but recognize. :-) Plus you sort of get famous for it, sometimes. :-) :-) :-) On the downside, you can get flamed for being mean and unhelpful. I had a guy tell me how cruel I was for helping him with the ORACLE_SID/ORACLE_HOME problem, but not solving his other Oracle database problems. I'd never even *used* Oracle, but knew the answer after seeing it on this list, every week for about 2 years running. :-) Oh well. Win some, lose some. If somebody thinks I'm being too nice or answering many FAQs, give me grief about it OFF-LIST please! -- Like Music? http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
