Re: Don't go all PerlMonks on me

From the sound of things, you did exactly what she asked for.

You didn't belittle her for not knowing what you know.
You didn't suggest a solution that involve changing the inputs to the problem, or changing the problem to suit a solution you knew.
You didn't preach to her about CPAN, or POD, or perldoc, or Supersearch.
You didn't berate her coding style, variable names, tab settings or editor choices.
You didn't assume that because you didn't understand her problem, that she was tackling the wrong one.

You gave a working solution to her immediate problem, that along the way, demonstrated the power of the 'use CPAN' mantra,

... without going all PerlMonks on her.

And you have left her to learn the lessons of your demonstration, in her own time and her own way. Nice one++.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

Comment on Re: Don't go all PerlMonks on me

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Re^2: Don't go all PerlMonks on me
by bobf (Monsignor) on Apr 09, 2007 at 21:52 UTC

Thanks for pointing these things out. Sometimes it's hard to perform a self-review, and it is good to get feedback from a neutral third party.

On a more general note, I think these are great examples of how to answer a question that apply not just to PerlMonks but also to teaching in general. It's a great summary of some of the points made in threads such as On Answering Questions, How to answer questions, and brian's Guide to Answering Questions, and I will link to this and refer others to it in the future.

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