[nojs]

Honestly ChatGPT is really good for this. You can ask stupid questions all day and the more basic they are, the more likely it is to know the answers. I use it all the time to get a basic understanding of topics that I know nothing about.

[whitfieldsdad]

Honestly, I probably ask ChatGPT 3-10 "stupid questions" a day.

Yesterday, I asked ChatGPT which file formats are most popular for storing knowledge graphs in flatfiles, and loved that I didn't have to spend the remainder of the afternoon apologizing for being as dumb as an apple or an egg.

I wonder if my main problem is that I don't know the level at which most people are at, or aim to be at before asking questions, since everyone experiences some level of hostility on the Internet, and surely people have a strategy for reducing how much hatemail they get on a given day.

Browsing Wikipedia works, and so does searching through GitHub for anchoring points of reference, but, I wish that there was an easier way - it'd be incredible if I could just, ask someone what my starting point should be, and where I should go from there - but, alas, this is the mark of a failed man.

[narag]

... and loved that I didn't have to spend the remainder of the afternoon apologizing for being as dumb as an apple or an egg.

The unfriendly people out there is just bad people. Real experts don't get angry at newbies, don't tell you that your question is wrong. Answers are wrong, questions aren't. Someone giving you a rude answer has probably something very wrong going on in his life and needs to feel smart at others' expense.

Unfortunately this behaviour has generalized. I've been trying to ask questions in unfamiliar areas and it's easier to educate myself than asking for help online.