[yoo1I]

I find that in preparing a question that is specific and answerable, includes everything needed to resolve it and anticipates criticism about not having done enough research myself, I'm usually able to answer the question I had myself, and even find stupid typos or or other silly little details.

In the cases that this process doesn't lead me to an answer, oftentimes I discover that either my question is too broad to be answerable, or that I am missing general education in the area and my actual question is somewhere further down.

So really the impatience and hostility towards bad questions, is a tool I use to aid me in finding answers myself.

That all sounds a little smug, but when I am stuck even after this process and actually post my research on SO or IRC or to a mailing list, too many times I get one-line answers about the tiny thing I was missing... but at least then nobody thought I was just being lazy.