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Originally Posted by JVN
Interesting "mentor" question...
Where does one cross the line between being "helpful" and doing someone a disservice?
I have provided young... ummm... "Gopher" with the answer to his question. I was trying to be helpful, and I had the answer on hand.
However... i just keep thinking of the phrase...
"When you give a man a fish you feed him once, when you teach a man to fish you feed him forever."
Instead of providing people who come to these forums the answers they seek, should we instead refrain and teach them how to find the answers on their own?
Any thoughts on this?
John |
I'm not sure if we're seeing this increasingly or if, simply, by the larger number of teams and larger number of participants on Chief Delphi it's more prevalent, but I've noticed a lot of folks requesting (I almost put demanding but that's just a subset of the posts) things be done for them (a lot of this is happening on the programming forum). Now, I have no problem with people asking questions. I have no problem with people turning to Chief Delphi for help with a problem. I think we've just gotten to a point where people will ask on here before they try to solve the problem themselves.
Certainly, someone will learn more if they've worked through it themselves as opposed to just coming here for an answer. However, it's definitely easier just to have someone else do it for you. In many ways, it's also easier for the person doing the help to just give the answer as opposed to actually teach someone how to do it.
So what's the answer? There really isn't one. It's obviously better for everyone in the long run if the questioner learns how to do it. However, there frequently isn't time to do so. So you do what you can and, perhaps, over time he or she will learn how to find things on their own.
Matt