Click here to Skip to main content
15,889,034 members

Welcome to the Lounge

   

For discussing anything related to a software developer's life but is not for programming questions. Got a programming question?

The Lounge is rated Safe For Work. If you're about to post something inappropriate for a shared office environment, then don't post it. No ads, no abuse, and no programming questions. Trolling, (political, climate, religious or whatever) will result in your account being removed.

 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Richard MacCutchan17-Apr-24 4:36
mveRichard MacCutchan17-Apr-24 4:36 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
trønderen17-Apr-24 5:36
trønderen17-Apr-24 5:36 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Richard MacCutchan17-Apr-24 5:53
mveRichard MacCutchan17-Apr-24 5:53 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Andre Oosthuizen17-Apr-24 7:07
mveAndre Oosthuizen17-Apr-24 7:07 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
raddevus17-Apr-24 7:04
mvaraddevus17-Apr-24 7:04 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Salvatore Terress17-Apr-24 7:53
Salvatore Terress17-Apr-24 7:53 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
raddevus17-Apr-24 8:20
mvaraddevus17-Apr-24 8:20 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
trønderen17-Apr-24 9:32
trønderen17-Apr-24 9:32 
I will say to your defense:

Most IT people (or you could make it more general, if you like: Most people with a university degree) are very poor at explaining a problem within their field of expertise to someone outside the field. Their advanced knowledge stands in the way.

Even when I ask my co-workers to explain something (I have a Master in Comp.Sci), I may have to guide them through their explanation, telling them 'First, explain how this part works, we'll take the rest afterwards', rather than everything messed up. They use terms that are specific to the stuff they are trying to explain, without explaining the term, and I have to stop them and demand an explanation. When they introduce some 'concept', I ask questions about how this concept differs from this and that older and well known concept. And so on. A good teacher/lecturer would structure his presentation, explain terms, refer to related, known stuff, and adapt the presentation to whatever background the audience has.

Most IT people just opens the sluice gates to let their immense flood of advance knowledge drown you. When the audience doesn't understand a word, the IT expert usually blames the audience Smile | :) Unfortunately, publishing books is so cheap nowadays that you see the same in a lot of IT books: You senses that the author is really knowledgeable, but the explanations are outright terrible. Sometimes, the better you know the subject area yourself, the more you see how bad the presentation is, how bad the examples are.

Wikipedia is certainly no exception (in many articles, not all): When I try to make sense of them, I often ask myself: Is there a single person in the world who will understand this - and also will look it up in Wikipedia? If it takes a Master to understand the article, then you probably learned enough in your studies that you know all the stuff in the article!

Some textbook authors are excellent. Some academics, even IT people, have an impressing ability to make even complex issues look easy and obvious to a lesser qualified audience. I wish we had a lot more of those. As long as that is not the case, we will have to cope with explanations that requires a lot of work to be deciphered. Sometimes you ask supplementary questions; sometimes the answer gives you the proper keywords for a google search for more understandable explanations. We won't run into those great pedagogics all the time, and have to live with it.

Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.

GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Mircea Neacsu17-Apr-24 11:53
Mircea Neacsu17-Apr-24 11:53 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
trønderen17-Apr-24 13:01
trønderen17-Apr-24 13:01 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Mircea Neacsu17-Apr-24 15:20
Mircea Neacsu17-Apr-24 15:20 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
BernardIE531717-Apr-24 18:23
BernardIE531717-Apr-24 18:23 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
jschell18-Apr-24 12:46
jschell18-Apr-24 12:46 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Andre Oosthuizen17-Apr-24 7:20
mveAndre Oosthuizen17-Apr-24 7:20 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Nelek17-Apr-24 7:58
protectorNelek17-Apr-24 7:58 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Andre Oosthuizen17-Apr-24 8:45
mveAndre Oosthuizen17-Apr-24 8:45 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
jschell18-Apr-24 12:48
jschell18-Apr-24 12:48 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
megaadam17-Apr-24 7:23
professionalmegaadam17-Apr-24 7:23 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Jeremy Falcon17-Apr-24 7:34
professionalJeremy Falcon17-Apr-24 7:34 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
RedDk17-Apr-24 7:36
RedDk17-Apr-24 7:36 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
trønderen17-Apr-24 9:36
trønderen17-Apr-24 9:36 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
RedDk17-Apr-24 10:02
RedDk17-Apr-24 10:02 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Salvatore Terress17-Apr-24 16:35
Salvatore Terress17-Apr-24 16:35 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Richard MacCutchan17-Apr-24 22:24
mveRichard MacCutchan17-Apr-24 22:24 
GeneralRe: posting a question / problem " format" ? Pin
Nelek18-Apr-24 8:13
protectorNelek18-Apr-24 8:13 

General General    News News    Suggestion Suggestion    Question Question    Bug Bug    Answer Answer    Joke Joke    Praise Praise    Rant Rant    Admin Admin   

Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.