Score one for non-PC MCP-ism... :)

Seriously, I agree with the main thrust of your post. It IS all too easy to splash a 'whazzat?' on PM or google before thinking. I've done it myself (no, really?). Disciplining yourself to sit and think things through is easily as difficult as contemplating the head of a pin without thinking of sexy ladies dancing. :)

I was fortunate in my first pressure-cooker programming job (four years into my career) to be writing assembly language for a machine control system where programming errors would leave embarrassing scars on custom-machined pieces. Perhaps not a nuclear reactor, but screwing up made truly awful (and expensive!) sounds happen! =8-O

I think that having a BUMS period, or, even better, a situation like the above, is a Really Good Thing (RGT!) in the career of a programmer. Most of the time. the damage is less critical, and I have to admit that having a few BUMS moments in my own life has helped make me think a bit more before hitting <ENTER> and having to reload the damn thing from zero. It's rarely that bad, thanks to our Bell Labs and Berkeley forefathers.

Is it too easy to ask? Yes, but, having been homeless myself, I side with the guy by the side of the road:

                              "We all need a little help sometimes!"

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