Questions, Please!
- To: Iris List <i*@Rt66.com>
- Subject: Questions, Please!
- From: S* M* <7*@CompuServe.COM>
- Date: 23 Nov 96 11:59:00 EST
Linda Mann wrote:
: But asking questions is input too - and ignorant people can ask really
: interesting questions that help more experienced people think about things in
: new ways. Last spring, I think it was Sharon McAllister who said she always
: learns new things from beginning hybridizers, and I figure if one timid
: lurker has a question, there are probably many more who would like to hear
: answers and discussion about the same question.
A paraphrase, but I plead guilty. It's not just beginning hybridizers, though,
I often get ideas from dealing with the questions of non-irisarians visiting the
garden for the first time. When I was providing on-the-job training for
programmers (back in those dim, dark days before colleges and universities
created degrees in Computer Science!) my favorite debugging trick was to insist
that the programmer explain the code to me, line-by-line. The simple act of
expaining the reasoning to someone else would help them spot problems that had
eluded hours of pouring through printout alone.
It works the same way with iris. Answering questions requires thought. Thought
produces ideas. Ideas for further experiments. And those experiments sometimes
produce significant breakthroughs.
The only "dumb" question is the one that remains unasked, so consider this a
"Lurker Alert":
If you don't find the answer to your question in Tom's FAQ file, don't be shy
-- post it to the List!
Sharon McAllister (73372.1745@compuserve.com)
Who expected IRIS-L discussion to pick up rather than slow down over the winter
months, the time for study, reflection, and planning.
