[dahart]

If people on the team exhibit a pattern of asking stupid questions, it may reflect poorly on the team, rather than the person asking stupid questions. It could mean there’s a lack of proper training and proper communication, or at the very least a lack of good hiring practices.

It is, however, important as a newbie to attempt to answer one’s own questions briefly before asking them, that’s one important way to learn and grow. My mentor at one of the best jobs I ever had instructed me on the day I was hired: “you must spend at least 5 minutes trying to answer your own questions, and also you must stop and ask someone as soon as you spend ten minutes trying to answer your own question.”

[cloverich]

I try to factor this in by, when someone asks me for help with something of that nature, I first reply "what have you tried so far". Its important, and so I don't feel bad saying "Go try X or lookup Y and then come back and we'll go from there". I feel like it's a reasonable trade off.