Did you know that you can don’t reply to “slack” questions like that anymore. It is simply a waste of their time.
Now before any of you get upset, I want to make clear that asking questions is fine, if you try to find a solution on Google first. I don’t mind helping those who have tried all avenues before like reading the instructions, Googling the information and trying to apply what they have learned.
What do you think? Do you have the same problem, or are you a person who asks before trying?
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Insightful post! I think one’s background also is quite a factor to searching online for answers or not.
I’ve been on the Internet now since 1988, back when there was no WWW and people accessed the net with command line tools (the way the Net was meant to be!
). Back then, everything was so new you simply HAD to become proficient at searching in order to learn. Nowadays, it’s just much easier to ask and wait for the answer to be sent to you.
This is one reason why I never tell my kids how to figure things out – I always tell them to Google it online and learn from their experiences.
Data points,
Barbara Ling
I google everything!
From how to cook a certain meal, to debugging some codes. Google may be a lot of things, but it’s definitely a great tool to get answers to problems.
Same here. I even make my daughter google questions to her math problems before I help her. It’s amazing how much info is out there. One word of caution though. I don’t think I have to tell you guys this but you can’t believe everything on the Internet. I see so many people that become convinced that something is, or isn’t , true based only on what they see on the Internet. There are so many people out there publishing things on the Internet for their own personal gain, or to just be an a$$, and the anonymity the internet provides lets them do it unchecked.
Yes. I agree 100%. My girlfriend has found some health related websites and freaked out at things she read, but I had to explain to her what a SPLOG was and what a MFA website is.
She’s fine now, but she definitely freaked out a bit when she read some stuff. So yes, don’t believe everything you read on the internet 
Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear … thats the saying right?
Google has played a very BIG part with my internet knowledge, my home recordings and pretty much other stuff as well. Yeah, I will normally Google it unless the results I get can’t be understood or doesn’t work.
But like Mike says up there, you still can’t take everything 100%. Well, you become better with experience.
Rather as a blogger, make it a practice that you even share your Google results if you ever need to ask any question to experts. This post was indeed a good one to set expectations right.
@ Barbara: yes and no, I grew up without the Internet and computers at school (gee, don’t ask me how old I am
) and I still learned all that. I think the real problem here is laziness.
People are too lazy to search for answers because they can ask with half their effort.
@ Bryan: good point. Don’t believe everything you see and hear on the net. I like your idea on helping your daughter too. What this does is make her a lot more independent which can only be a good thing (plus use her brain)
@ Mike: I wonder what kind of recipes you cook up? LOL, sounds like fun anyway.
@ Kay: correct. There is so much we can learn from using Google often.
@ LiC: that is a great suggestion. At least it shows that you (the blogger) has done his/her research prior and has
come to a dead end.
for me, a quick online search has replaced loads of paper based reference material, which quickly goes out of date.
Here’s where you can send people who continually bug you with questions that can easily be answered by a quick google search:
http://www.JustBloodyGoogleIt.com
Regards,
EricG.
@ Eric; that video is hilarious. I have bookmarked this for future use! Thanks for sharing.
On the other hand, you have different fingers. Seriously though, it is the questions that people ask that prompt entrepreneurial endeavors to begin.
If nothing more, they can become content in many ways:
-FAQ page,
-Web 2.0 pages (let other readers answer)
-Collected to make an ebook
-Seed concept for a new website
-Indicator of what new program might be needed
All in all, questions asked again and again make for pretty inexpensive market research handed to you.
–Chaplain Paul Slater
You are so right in the topic of this entry that I can’t believe I haven’t seen this before. Every day I see questions in different forums I visit and think to myself “Hasn’t this person ever heard of Google?” because they could have had their question answered already.
Wow, all the comments I’ve left on blogs and I’ve never received a follow up email like the one you sent me. That’s some great marketing you’re doing
I made sure to subscribe to the rss feed and I look forward to learning from your insightful blog.
@ Paul: you are totally correct in what you are saying. Problem is that all kinds of products and information already exist exactly in those fields and yet the questions are still repeated.
The best example can be found in forums. Just have a look at the same questions that are being asked time and time again, despite the fact that many of those in the know have given their time freely to answer them.
This is something I will probably always fail to understand.
@ Jason: thank you. I guess you mean the subscribe to comment feature. It is great to stay in touch with a thread and allows you to come back and interact.