[Energy1]

>The people who react that way towards not just ignorance, but inquisitiveness, are plainly assholes.

Anecdotally speaking, such people know more than a beginner, but are very, very far from being an expert themselves.

On a board dedicated to learning English you can see people who can barely speak English scoff at "noobs" who can't tell the difference between "some" and "any". Math forums are full of people who never progressed beyond undergrad math laughing at those who have hard time distinguishing between contrapositive and contradiction.

It's a symptom of mediocrity and the vast majority of us, humans, are mediocre.

[grayclhn]

> Anecdotally speaking, such people know more than a beginner, but are very, very far from being an expert themselves.

I've met some assholes who are experts. It's just that real experts are rare, asshole or not.

[vinceguidry]

Also a lot of these basic questions can involve quite a bit of complexity. Take a look at the debate in this SO thread:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1035008/what-is-the-diffe...

Plenty of very smart people have spent lots of time thinking about basic questions.