Re: Automatically displaying content of [some] attachments

[Wayne Harris <wharris1@protonmail.com>]

Adam Sjøgren <asjo@koldfront.dk> writes:

> Wayne writes:
>
>> I don't even think it really must be asked to the public.  By just
>> putting precisely the question down to yourself seems to _essentially_
>> do the same job.  Of course, without the public's scrutiny, you're
>> relevantly limited and denied the joy and profit of exchange.
>
> For some reason I don't look into solving niggles with Gnus until after
> I have actual sent off the question.
>
> Before I send it, I feel like, hmm, I should ask about this, because
> it's too tedious for me to figure out, and if somebody has the answer
> already, I'd love to have it.
>
> Then I send the question, and it triggers an "aww, let me just take a
> quick look, how hard can it be, it's Emacs, for crying out loud"-reaction.
>
> In other circumstances it's enough for me to put the question into
> words, sometimes even to nobody; the famous "rubber ducking".
>
> But for Gnus, and also for jabber.el, come to think of it, I almost
> always send the question before solving it. In the case of jabber.el
> sometimes spending days on it.
>
> I am not sure why.
>
> I do feel a little like a crazy person posting monologues, sometimes.

One hypothesis to explain your behavior is a bit of intellectual
narcisism and perhaps a bit of competition.  After you send the message,
you might begin to wonder --- is the question well put?  Is there any
obvious solution?  ``Omg, I forgot to check this other thing.  Let me do
that and make sure it doesn't solve the problem, otherwise I *failed* to
verify basic things.''  Does that happen?

For example, does it please you if the question turns out to be hard?  I
suppose asking whether it turns to be interesting would be surely
something everyone would like, I guess.  But I think that also qualifies
as a bit of intellectualism.

At the same time, I think it's a great joy to just exchange and talk.
You know, people get a ball and start throwing it back and forth.
That's life, fun, joy!

It would actually suck if people sort of demand that your questions must
always be so well put.  That makes you do a lot of verifications and so
it becomes tedious.  I prefer to do things in the following way.  I
asked a silly question and someone easily spotted.  I ask: how did you
do that so quickly?! :-)

>> Asking a good question requires sincerity and even courage to admit
>> your inability to answer it;
>
> I think that is an interesting point.
>
> That's one of the things I look for in student helpers at work, do they
> tell me when there is stuff they don't know (I avoided the word "admit"
> here, because it implies not knowing is embarrasing, which it shouldn't
> be in that situation), and do they ask questions that clear things up
> for them.

Yes, good catch.  I didn't want to imply that it is embarrassing.