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Absolutely, there is a major difference between 'ask Google' and 'ask a mentor'. I don't get a lot of chance to code, but I do enjoy scripting. Google is fantastic at answering questions when I know what it is I want to do. But it's terrible at preventing bad habits. "But this guy on this website said do -foo- and it works perfectly!", to which my mentor says "yuk yuk yuk yuk. do not do that. It does not scale. It relies on -bar-. And most importantly, it's revealed that you do not understand the concepts behind why you are doing -foo- and what it is you actually want to achieve". I'm extremely fortunate in that I have access to a very good mentor who loves chewing the tech fat with me and genuinely loves sharing tech info with anyone at any level. I don't take enough time to take advantage of him, but I recognise that it's really rare to have someone who is both highly skilled, a good teacher, and motivated. Google is great for the things that google is great at. But it does not take the place of a good mentor. I've read code sample after code sample and made a script do -foo-, but my mentor has picked up some subtely as to why I should be doing -bar- instead. To some extent, it's reflected in the "RTFM" ideology. Man pages are great... if you already know what you're doing. If you're new to a concept, they vary from 'great' to 'fucking abysmal', as they take all sorts of knowledge for granted. Telling someone "just go learn from the documentation" is slightly evil, in my opinion. Yes, absolutely, there must be a culture where you go for the documentation early and often, but guidance and direction from experts is extremely important. |