Installation Problem

[Laura Creighton]

In a message of Wed, 02 Dec 2015 14:42:48 +0000, Mark Lawrence writes:
>On 02/12/2015 13:59, Laura Creighton wrote:
>> In a message of Wed, 02 Dec 2015 13:30:38 +0000, Mark Lawrence writes:
>>> 0) before asking search for "python installation problem" just in case
>>> you're not the first person to have this issue.
>>
>> That is not a good idea, there are so many different hits for that.
>> The first one I get is this:
>> http://superuser.com/questions/613820/error-installing-python-on-windows-7-x64
>>
>> which is unlikely to be the OP's problem.
>
>So you are advocating that people keep on asking the same question, even 
>if it has been asked twice a day for the last month?

Yes.  It is old for us, but nobody should be giving 2 hoots about 
our feelings.  Since we can just ignore such things.  The problem 
is always fresh and new for the poster.

>  Wouldn't it be 
>better to advise people to restrict their search to maybe the last month 
>or even week, or do a site specific search, or even check the mailing 
>list archives?

They are already getting the advice to ask the question on python-list.
This is the preferred way to get such problems solved.  We even have
automated mailer responses telling people to ask such questions here.
We don't warn them that they are about to meet anti-social and egotistical
people who think that they should take every opportunity to be 
sarcastic that presents itself.

You also have a woefully inadequate understanding of ignorance.
See Kruger Dunnign effect:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
People in the bottom quartile of comprehension of anything -- i.e.
the most ignorant -- lack the metacognative skills to recognise
the solutions to their problems even when they are presented in
a clear and logical fashion.  Thus the most ignorant can not be expected 
to just google up an answer, because even if they got one, they wouldn't 
be able to recognise it.

It's bad enough when they miss solutions out there.  It's worse when
they try to do things that work for one OS on another, or one version
of an OS on another, and so on and so forth.  

Much, much better that these people come and ask quesitons.

>It's not funny, but it does show the number of times that the question 
>asked is often less than useless.  Personally I'm tired of the fit bib, 
>spoon feed, change nappy brigade, who IMHO are doing far more harm than 
>good.

I think you should stay away from python-list, then, until your sense
of humour returns and your ability to deal with the abysmally ignorant
matures.  Because this is where we actually want to get a hold of 
such people so we can teach them things, and the active and vocal
presence of people who resent them for being ignorant makes the job
a whole lot harder.

Laura

>Mark Lawrence