Harvester Of Sorrow

Contrary to popular belief, on various developer forums, I’m, in fact, not a two headed monster crushing hopes and dreams of new comers.

Every now and then a new user registers who’d like to be a programmer. All is good up until the moment he click’s on the submit button of the new thread form. What usually happens then is a thread in which the new user is asking for complete source code for his problem/answer to something way out of his league/homework solution/…

Then I come along (or some other similarly minded colleague) and try to explain that nobody will work for free/he should start with basics/he should do the homework by himself/…

And then the new comer says isn’t a forum supposed to be a place where people help each other/but I want to do this, and I want it now/but I really need this tomorrow/…

In the past I’d try to explain to this new user how things work, throw in some analogies with being a pilot, car designer, etc. and I’d, off course, fail miserably. I really don’t know what’s so hard about understanding, that you have to learn to walk first before you can run, and that programming is no exception.

I’ve simply stopped doing this as it a complete and utter waste of my time. I just let the newbie learn the hard way. But I’m still trying to come up with a great response to this type of questions that would send the new user in the right direction. I do want to help; I always do, if question is really a question.

No educational content in this post, I know, but I just needed to rant a little :)