Don't Be Lazy: how to ask questions on the internet
Almost every night, my wife asks me what the weather is going to be like tomorrow. She has an iphone and a laptop, knows how to turn on the television, and can read. But every night, she still asks me, like I'm the farmer's almanac personified. And every night I pull out my iphone and look up the weather for her. I do it because I love her. But I don't love strangers on the internet, and neither do you. If you went on Stack Overflow and asked what the weather was going to be like tomorrow every night, you'd probably be banned from posting. It's simple: people don't like to feel taken advantage of. People like to help people who are already helping themselves. If you have a question, the very first thing you should do before you post anything on the internet is to Google. You might find the answer to your question. In fact, someone may have already asked your exact same question (there is truly nothing new under the sun, even in programming). If you don't find the answer to your question, you will likely find answers to similar questions, and can then better frame your own question. Showing that you have looked for your own answers and have gotten close makes it much more likely that people will want to help you over the finish line. This shouldn't put you off from asking questions--on the contrary, it should be empowering. You can do research. You don't have to rely on other people to always answer your questions. And when you really do need help, you are more likely to find it if you first put in the work to search for an answer to your own question. Also, tomorrow's forecast is partly cloudy, high of 75. Should be a beautiful day.