On: Technical blogging in the era of Stack Overflow

[rognjen]

> hard for a noob to tell a good answer from a workaround from a terrible answer

While that's true the noob questions often have multiple answers and they're simpler to try out in sequence.

[TeMPOraL → rognjen]

That's the thing though: you don't try out SO answers. Either you understand them and know if they address your problems, or you need to continue your research.

Programming is not like baking cookies, you can't just copy a snippet and hope it'll work out OK.

[da_chicken → TeMPOraL]

> Programming is not like baking cookies, you can't just copy a snippet and hope it'll work out OK.

Wait, why not?

Isn't the entire notion of a library or framework literally a book of common recipes? Don't most languages ship with a standard library, common classes, or a common framework?

Sure, thoughtlessly mixing mismatched patterns will get you haggis or oatmeal raisin, but that really doesn't mean the method is flawed.

[rognjen → TeMPOraL]

Well I don't speak for all noobs but I do know that when I was one (and still am in some ways) I did _try out_ and try to understand them.

And to be frank that's kind of an elitist way of looking at someone who is still learning.