The cacophony of the inexperienced asking for help from professionals can be overwhelming, and stupid questions can be exhausting to have to sift through, but there remains a community of programmers who help each other because this is how this world functions and thrives. You build upon the ideas and expertise of those who came before you. Often questions are asked about very basic things that people struggle to understand, and those questions are answered because it’s a struggle everyone goes through. It’s not stupid to be a beginner. Everyone was a beginner. However, there’s a clear difference between being a beginner and being lazy. Programmers want to help, but sometimes that help is taken advantage of by those who simply won’t put in the work themselves. It is from these people that the community often gets stupid questions. When people talk about stupid questions, more often they’re talking about people asking lazy questions.
You need to do your due diligence in searching for an answer. Too often people find programmer communities and then use them as a personal tutor, asking them to hold your hand and explain everything to you even though they haven’t even opened their book yet and tried to figure it out themselves. Professionals aren’t there to read you your text, they’re there to help you make the connections that the text was unable to provide. If I go onto Stack Overflow and ask, “What’s the difference between a var and a let?” Then no one would put up with something like that. It’s a waste of time. If I just typed that question into google, I would find a hundred resources explaining this.
Stack Overflow can help someone with their homework, but it’s not there so that someone can do your homework for you. The most atrocious example of this I could find is here: Stack Overflow. The user uses the title “C File Homework” which right off the bat will scare people away. You’ve told them nothing except that you’re posting your homework and then only being as specific as saying that it’s in the C language and might have something to do with files. The body of the question only says “This is my homework” followed by a link and what looks like a direct copy of his homework assignment. It even includes the grading system for their class inexplicably just to show how little this person was paying attention to the information they were providing. Then the user posts the code he has saying “This is what I have. Can you please help me?” They don’t say what went wrong or what the specific issue they’re having is. We can only assume that the code doesn’t work. There is no question, only an implication that the user wants someone to do their homework for them. This question shows no respect for the people the student is asking for help from.
For an example of a good question I’ve picked a rather popular one: Stack Overflow. This is a very simple question, it’s not as long as the others, but that’s ideal for a question. It states first what they want to do, but is very specific with what they are using and what the ideal outputs are. Then they post their code, which is also a major plus. When you state a problem you’re having but do not include your code, then either you’re hoping the reader understands without seeing the code or you’re expecting them to code it themselves. Including your code makes your issue a lot clearer. The title is direct and explains exactly what the question is about. Then, after his code, the user asks their question, this is an important step a lot of people make. It’s silly, but a common mistake made when asking programming questions is that they’ll state that there’s a problem and post the code but they won’t explicitly say what they’re asking about. When asking a good question you have to take every step to show that you’ve made an effort. Explain what you don’t understand, don’t say what you think the problem is, and make sure the question is understood.
Programmers want to help each other, but they can smell a lazy person a mile away. No one’s going to hold your hand, but if you work hard and do your due diligence, other programmers will want to help you along the way. Professionals want to work alongside people who are looking to learn and contribute. Asking smart questions isn’t just a way for someone to get the answers they need, it’s a good habit to cultivate for their professional career.