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A Discovery about finding the answer immediately after posting to the Forum — Parallax Forums

A Discovery about finding the answer immediately after posting to the Forum

T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
edited 2014-01-31 20:28 in Propeller 1
A strange phenom some may have experienced is that you can be stumped on a problem for many hours, but within minutes of posting the question to the forum... you get the answer from out of no where. I have now found out that even the act of starting to post the question, and leaving the post in the screen for a few minutes WITHOUT submitting can accomplish the same thing. Very strange. I was about to post a question and got the answer, and meant to put this in general.

Comments

  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    edited 2014-01-26 07:29
    T Chap wrote: »
    A strange phenom some may have experienced is that you can be stumped on a problem for many hours, but within minutes of posting the question to the forum... you get the answer from out of no where. I have now found out that even the act of starting to post the question, and leaving the post in the screen for a few minutes WITHOUT submitting can accomplish the same thing. Very strange. I was about to post a question and got the answer, and meant to put this in general.

    Maybe the Forums are morphing into the Borg Collective...
  • fengfeng Posts: 39
    edited 2014-01-26 07:38
    Windows..........
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2014-01-26 07:48
    If the answer pops into your head after writing a description, this is quite common and is why it helps to explain a problem to someone else when you get stuck. Just going through the act of verbalizing it often causes your brain to go through different thought processes about the problem and you "mysteriously" find the answer.

    If you get an email or some other communication from an external source while still working on your post, well, then we're back to the "collective" theory! :lol:
  • MicrocontrolledMicrocontrolled Posts: 2,461
    edited 2014-01-26 07:56
    I think the name for this is "Rubber duck debugging" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-01-26 08:10
    It's so true.

    And how my colleagues hate it when I use them as rubber ducks. Call them away from their work and spend 20 minutes explaining to them a problem that they don't understand and aren't much interested in only to end up with "Ah...err...never mind, my fault...thanks anyway".
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2014-01-26 08:12
    My rubber duck tended to write better code than I did.....
  • ManAtWorkManAtWork Posts: 2,176
    edited 2014-01-30 05:47
    The forum actively supports this "answer found AFTER posting"-phenomenon.

    When I have a problem, BEFORE posting I usually search the forum if this problem was already known. However, the serach function is very bad or somehow I don't understand how to use it correctly. Ok... I don't find anything useful and post a question. AFTER that, I see a "similar threads"-list displayed below my post, generated by the forum software. And you can guess what I often find there: Some thread about the exact same problem.:blank:
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-01-30 06:23
    ManAtWork.

    You may have better luck searching the forums with Google: just enter "site:forums.parallax.com thing I want to find" into the search box.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2014-01-30 06:58
    Heater. wrote: »
    ManAtWork.

    You may have better luck searching the forums with Google: just enter "site_forums.parallax.com thing I want to find" into the search box.

    @Heater,

    You might have a typo in there. I believe it's

    site:forums.parallax.com thing I want to find
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-01-30 07:08
    Oops, finger slipped.
  • Mark_TMark_T Posts: 1,981
    edited 2014-01-30 09:00
    T Chap wrote: »
    A strange phenom some may have experienced is that you can be stumped on a problem for many hours, but within minutes of posting the question to the forum... you get the answer from out of no where. I have now found out that even the act of starting to post the question, and leaving the post in the screen for a few minutes WITHOUT submitting can accomplish the same thing. Very strange. I was about to post a question and got the answer, and meant to put this in general.

    You think you understand a topic - maybe you do. You try explaining a topic to someone else, you'll quickly find out if you really
    understand it!
  • Cole LoganCole Logan Posts: 196
    edited 2014-01-30 19:06
    This has happened about 4 time on my recent project. I've just about started writing a post when the answer finally comes to me.
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2014-01-31 13:08
    Abraham Lincoln is said to have written many more letters than he sent.
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2014-01-31 18:00
    The only stupid question is the one you DIDN'T ask

    If you have a question, probably 100 other folks do too

    You can't get it if you don't ask for it clearly (or you get the monkey's paw)

    You don't REALLY know it until you explain it to somebody else.

    When somebody does "rubber duck debugging" at you , look them in the eye and say nothing. When they get to the point where they stop and look puzzled, repeat (one key word) form the topic immediately before. Often their eyes go funny and they walk away babbling, and come back later to say how brilliant the suggestion was.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2014-01-31 19:30
    There's no quicker way to a solution than to explain the problem to someone else -- even if they don't know the answer! I think the reason is that verbalization imposes concreteness upon the amorphous hand-waving that led to the issue in the first place.

    -Phil
  • evanhevanh Posts: 15,928
    edited 2014-01-31 20:28
    Talking to one's self is highly recommended for critical thinking. It provides a lot of independent thinking which some do not desire others to have.
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