[musicale]

Sometimes the error message is spurious and the solution (such as installing the right version of a software package) is well-known. Maybe someone knows this and can solve your problem instantly.

Other times, perhaps frequently, the error message is actually telling you something important.

Many people get stuck in the second case thinking it's the first case.

[lttlrck]

Isn't that covered by this?

> When there's an error or exception, read the error and the stack trace thoroughly and figure out what it means even if it means googling.

The infuriating part is when there is no attempt to parse the error and just fire off a screenshot in chat and expect someone to do the first part too...