May 29, 2024
#blog
Stop telling people to RTFM.
Seriously.
While I think it's absolutely good practice as a programmer to get comfortable reading documentation, the sad truth is that not all docs are great. Though that's not the main reason behind my argument.
When someone is asking for help, they're usually doing it out of a place of wanting to hear from a real person that likely has more experience. It's the same when you tell someone to "Google it" or whatever. It's just "skill issue" under the guise of something that seems a little more civil, but has the same impact.
In elementary school, I forgot which grade, but one of my teachers had an "ask three before me" policy. Basically, if we were lost on something, before consulting her for help, we were "expected" try three other strategies first (things like looking it up, asking a classmate, and basically anything that didn't involve her directly). I... never really understood that. To my younger self, I must have felt that she wanted us to be more independent or whatever.
Even up to college, there was a very vocal minority of students who didn't like how some of the intro CS classes would "hold your hand" so to speak. That kinda has the same feel to it. Ooh, this world is scary, you must fight for yourself and only the strongest will survive so hustle up and become stronger. Nah, that is just elitism. Plain and simple. Intro CS classes hold your hand a little because... not everybody coming into the program is that experienced. Like, isn't that pretty obvious? It's an INTRO class, it does what it says on the tin. I get you're a USACO Platinum and you think the lower-divs are a waste of time and you just want to get straight into research because you're gonna A+ every single class and thus will contribute to the growing lack of diversity at this institution that oh look your girl has already written about, but come on, some people are just trying to learn.
I try to explicitly help people with things as much as I can, but sadly I do not know a lot of things. But that's fine, I'm still learning! People often say the best way to learn is to teach, and I've certainly felt that way in the opportunities I've had to help someone. It's an irreplaceable feeling - not only do you feel like you're more qualified on a subject matter, but you've also left a lasting impact on someone. I don't care how good LLMs get, sometimes I just want a real person to guide me. And don't we all?
Hey, at least the LLM can RTFM (and summarize it) for me.