It is very unfortunate that in the world of ubiquitous information, ability to just look up a reasonable solution to a well known and well studied problem that has already been solved long ago is practically a superpower
Its exactly because information is so ubiquitous and plentiful that finding a reasonable solution is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
In most cases in my experience, the people did not face challenge actually grepping the internet for the solution.
More likely they just went to roll out their own solution for any number of other reasons:
-- For the fun of intellectual challenge (I am guilty of this),
-- For having hubris to think they are first to meet that challenge (I have been guilty of this in the past, I no longer make that mistake),
-- For having hubris to think they have uniquely best solution to the problem, highly unlikely it is even worth verifying,
-- For being superior to everybody else and hence no real reason to dignify other, lesser people, by being interested in their work,
-- For feeling there is just too much pressure and no time to do it right or even to take a peek at what is right and how much time it would take,
-- For not having enough experience to suspect there might be a solution to this problem,
-- Books? Only old people read books,
-- Papers? They are for research scientists. I haven't finished CS to read papers at work.
and so on.
There have really been very few concrete problems that I could not find some solution to on the Internet.
It is more difficult to find solution to less concrete problems but even with these kinds of problems if you have a habit of regularly seeking knowledge, reading various sources, etc. you will probably amass enough experience and knowledge to deal with most even complex problems on your own.
I regularly hear coders say they cannot understand other people's code so they _had_ to write it themselves. Most people can't read papers either it seems.
People lost ability to read anything longer than a tweet with focus and comprehension. Especially new developers.
I know this because whatever I put in third and further paragraphs of my tickets is not being red or understood.
I sometimes quiz guys on review meetings and I even sometimes put the most important information somewhere in the middle of the ticket. Always with the same result -- they are surprised.
Now, to read a paper is to try to imagine being the person who wrote it and appreciate not just written text but also a lot more things that are not necessarily spelled.
The same with code -- when I read somebodys code I want to recognize their style, how they approach various problems. Once you know a little bit about their vocabulary you can really speed up reading the rest because you can anticipate what is going to happen next.
Comments
Its exactly because information is so ubiquitous and plentiful that finding a reasonable solution is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
In most cases in my experience, the people did not face challenge actually grepping the internet for the solution.
More likely they just went to roll out their own solution for any number of other reasons:
-- For the fun of intellectual challenge (I am guilty of this),
-- For having hubris to think they are first to meet that challenge (I have been guilty of this in the past, I no longer make that mistake),
-- For having hubris to think they have uniquely best solution to the problem, highly unlikely it is even worth verifying,
-- For being superior to everybody else and hence no real reason to dignify other, lesser people, by being interested in their work,
-- For feeling there is just too much pressure and no time to do it right or even to take a peek at what is right and how much time it would take,
-- For not having enough experience to suspect there might be a solution to this problem,
-- Books? Only old people read books,
-- Papers? They are for research scientists. I haven't finished CS to read papers at work.
and so on.
There have really been very few concrete problems that I could not find some solution to on the Internet.
It is more difficult to find solution to less concrete problems but even with these kinds of problems if you have a habit of regularly seeking knowledge, reading various sources, etc. you will probably amass enough experience and knowledge to deal with most even complex problems on your own.
I regularly hear coders say they cannot understand other people's code so they _had_ to write it themselves. Most people can't read papers either it seems.
Well, that's another thing.
People lost ability to read anything longer than a tweet with focus and comprehension. Especially new developers.
I know this because whatever I put in third and further paragraphs of my tickets is not being red or understood.
I sometimes quiz guys on review meetings and I even sometimes put the most important information somewhere in the middle of the ticket. Always with the same result -- they are surprised.
Now, to read a paper is to try to imagine being the person who wrote it and appreciate not just written text but also a lot more things that are not necessarily spelled.
The same with code -- when I read somebodys code I want to recognize their style, how they approach various problems. Once you know a little bit about their vocabulary you can really speed up reading the rest because you can anticipate what is going to happen next.
People may have a preference for certainty.
They work on the problem. They will make progress and likely solve it.
They search the literature they will spend time on research and quite possibly lose days before emerging with nothing to show for it.
I see you prefer lousy results.
Also, you read BEFORE you need it.
To be literate, educated, knowledgeable developer. And to know where the knowledge is when you need it (because you can't remember everything).
I wasn’t stating a preference merely observing another possible reason people don’t research solutions before diving in.