Helping people on the internet -- was: Re: a simple question
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- Subject: [mg131741] Helping people on the internet -- was: Re: a simple question
- From: Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 03:44:44 -0400 (EDT)
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On 9/24/2013 11:31 PM, Barrie Stokes wrote: > Hi Murray > > A neat and simple answer to a simple question, and as always with >yourself and a few other MathGroup regulars, very helpful. > ... > As I've said more than once before in a similar MathGroup gripe, > "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him > for a lifetime". (Lao Tzu, apparently.) > > Best wishes > > Barrie > As we know, the availability of the internet and search engines has made it possible for people to find answers (including incorrect "answers") to many questions. Yet some people, (especially students), have raised the search for answers by one level of indirection. That is, they search not for answers, but for email addresses of persons (or whole collections of email addresses on mailing lists) where people know the answers. And then they ask (or post) their simple question. How to deal with this? In general there seems to be no way to change "everyone's" behavior. It is possible to administer a subtle smack-down as is done sometimes on comp.lang.lisp where students unwilling to do their homework on their own, pose their problems to the newsgroup. The student is offered an actual solution, but of such sophistication that it might lead in any of several directions 1. The student, in attempting to learn how this solution works, will learn all kinds of things not part of the usual simplistic intro to lisp. (Like the object system, hash tables, functional operators) 2. The student will turn in the solution as homework and be treated as a cheater (which he/she is, turning in someone else's solution). 3. Uh, something else. Another solution: The moderator should (and I heartily recommend that he or they do so) refuse to post anything with an unsuitable subject line, or perhaps with dumb content. Unsuitable subject lines include: "A simple question" "Problem" "Bug" "Help" ... of course these words could be used as part of a more descriptive subject line; I'm objecting to ones lacking in any further description. A few notes: The particular joy apparently found by writers of elaborate solutions to simple Lisp problems may be harder to identify in Mathematica, where all the "right" the solutions seem to be elaborate, though some are exponentially more efficient than others. The whole effect is ruined if someone posts "the expected solution" which is the simple one-line Lisp code that the instructor expects. If the problem is not homework at all, but simply a lazy dunce (and/or ossibly unable to read the documentation because it is in an unfamiliar language?) posting a question, this exercise in obfuscation is pointless. This person will not understand what has happened. I doubt that there are many students taking courses in which there are homework problems that read, "Determine, using Mathematica, <whatever> " So this might not be so relevant. ............. Another solution: The moderator should (and I heartily recommend that he or they do so) refuse to post anything with an unsuitable subject line, or perhaps one with dumb content. Unsuitable subject lines include: "A simple question" "Problem" "Bug" "Help" "Question about Mathematica" ... of course these words could be used as part of a more descriptive subject line; I'm objecting to lines absolutely lacking in any further description. Any other suggestions? Richard Fateman
- References:
- a simple question
- From: Dhaneshwar Mishra <dhaneshwarmishra@gmail.com>
- a simple question