[zahlman]

> you'd often deal with people who were trying to show how smart they are and rather than answering your questions they demand to know "what are you really trying to do?"

In over 30 years of using the Internet I have seen this question form countless times, and I have posed it myself countless times.

I have never had it in mind to "show how smart I am", and cannot recall ever walking away with the impression that someone else was doing so.

The goal is to solve the other person's problem; the rationale is a genuine belief that the other person has an https://xyproblem.info/ . This belief is, often, motivated by confusion over the description of what's happened so far, or by the OP taking actions that seem inconsistent or needlessly convoluted.

Getting help from other people, as a beginner in a field (any field) requires accepting that you might not yet know the right question to ask, or how to ask it. That's just how knowledge works.

The worst thing about forums in my experience, by far, is people who pose as wanting help but who really just want to rant. Specifically for Linux forums, rant about Linux because it doesn't work like Windows.