I'm sorry, but I'm desperet

[Janina Sajka]

Stick around, Glenn, unless, of course, your skin is on the thin side.

As someone who is probably notorious for saying rtfm, let me add that my
style is like you describe your style. I'd rather dive in than read the
manual. So, that's what I do, I dive in. Guess what? I fail. So, I go
read the manual, and it doesn't make sense, and it seems that 90% isn't
even about what I'm hanging on. But, something invariably makes sens in
the manual. Maybe it doesn't make sense right away. Maybe it only makes
sense a day or two later, after I've slept on it.

Then I go and try again. And I fail again. But this time the error is
different. So, I go read the manual again. And, what do you know? 90% of
it still appears irrelevant?

But, it's not the same 90%. So, how do you explain that? I'm still
trying to figure out how some part of the manual that seemed irrelevant,
all of a sudden becomes very relevant. It's a mystery, I know.


Glenn Ervin at home writes:
> From: "Glenn Ervin at home" <GlennErvin at cableone.net>
> 
> Hello Greg,
> Some people learn better by trial and error, as opposed to reading a manual.
> You mentioned "laziness or impatient".
> I must admit that I am sometimes too impatient to read a manual, but there I
> must just consider this a learning style.
> Where I can spend hours figuring out a program or O S, and not be
> frustrated, I sometimes find it difficult to read a manual, and read through
> 80% of material covering common sense, and 10% of stuff I will never need,
> only  to get to a small portion of help that I really need.
> So when someone asks me if I read the manual, I want to ask them something
> rude in return, but I don't.
> I think this is one of the reasons a list like this exists.
> If I am wrong, I'll be glad to leave.
> Glenn.
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Gregory Nowak" <greg at romuald.net.eu.org>
> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 10:26 PM
> Subject: Re: I'm sorry, but I'm desperet
> 
> 
> By asking if Chris had read the docs, I was simply attempting to
> determine which parts of the configuration he was specifically having
> trouble with. Configuring alsa can be an involved process, and I
> didn't want to give an unnecessarily long explanation, when I could
> have spent the same amount of time addressing a particular issue in
> more detail.
> 
> Also, I am finding that I need to ask people if they have read the
> documentation, as unfortunate as that may be. The sad fact is that
> most people expect someone else to do everything for them, while they
> expect to learn nothing about it, and take advantage of the other
> person's work on their behalf at the same time. I don't mind teaching
> and explaining whatever I can. However I do mind if someone just
> expects me to do all the work for them because they're to
> lazy/impatient to read up on the procedure themselves. Note that
> 
> 
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-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175