Frustration with nOObs?

Thread Starter

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
I like talking about complicated electronic circuits. But it seems that every thread is from a nOOb (almost always THE SAME NOOB over and over!) about basic electronics taught in high school and is detailed in Google.
Most of the nOObs are from a foreign country where everything including language is different.

Is this the wrong website for me?
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Yep. But I enjoy your company!

Lets face it, no one is born knowing this stuff. I'm probably closer to you in attitude than I am to anyone that is 20-30. A lot of what formed us was the public library (or college library), as there was no internet. You wanted to learn something you had to look it up. Too many of the students don't want to read, they want it served up in easy to digest bytes.

Of course, I like working with people who are smarter than me. LightFire is a case in point, he is young, and younger folks ask a lot of questions. When I was his age I know I aggravated my teachers.

I have dropped noobs from my vocabulary though, I use the word beginners. I am against political correctness, but I'm not going to hold them not having electronics background against them. Eventually they won't be beginners, they will be intermediate, and if they stick with it advanced, and if they decide to help beginners they will have their payback, in more way than one. All part of the circle.
 
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Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
That situation just shows one of two things:

Either there are many students that try (even in vain) to learn (quite a good thing),
or we are just smarter than the majority of people who even try to get involved with our sector (even better for us).

Take your pick.
 

magnet18

Joined Dec 22, 2010
1,227
Yep. But I enjoy your company!

Lets face it, no one is born knowing this stuff. I'm probably closer to you in attitude than I am to anyone that is 20-30. A lot of what formed us was the public library (or college library), as there was no internet. You wanted to learn something you had to look it up. Too many of the students don't want to read, they want it served up in easy to digest bytes.

Of course, I like working with people who are smarter than me. LightFire is a case in point, he is young, and younger folks ask a lot of questions. When I was his age I know I aggravated my teachers.

I have dropped noobs from my vocabulary though, I use the word beginners. I am against political correctness, but I'm not going to hold them not having electronics background against them. Eventually they won't be beginners, they will be intermediate, and if they stick with it advanced, and if they decide to help beginners they will have their payback, in more way than one. All part of the circle.
Where do I rank?
Beginner?
 

Thread Starter

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
On another electronics chat forum I guided a student with a fairly complicated project that had errors (like most internet projects). He built the original project that did not work and I asked him why and to to try corrections that worked perfectly.
He graduated university with honours and got a good job.
I was glad to help him.

But many students today demand a circuit that they can simply copy then submit as their own design which is wrong.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Where do I rank?
Beginner?
Mostly, you need to work on your transistor theory. But you are getting there, so I would more likely to put you into intermediate.

I was where you are now in high school, lots a snipits of information, but lacking a comprehensive whole.
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
But many students today demand a circuit that they can simply copy then submit as their own design which is wrong.
Yes that may be a problem. But than that happened it is most often very transparent. And they will seldom get the help they demand. They are simply ignored. At least as I see it. We must also differ the slackers, and coasters from the beginners. That need help.
 

bertus

Joined Apr 5, 2008
22,270
Hello,

There as may problems as there are people.
Some will pickup things easy, some will need some time for it.
We most probably ALL started as noobs, but over time we learned a lot.

When giving answers over here I try to use educational sites most of the times.
This will not give a plain answer but also some background information.

Bertus
 

ErnieM

Joined Apr 24, 2011
8,377
You can get a feel pretty quickly if someone is actually involved and trying to learn something or is just looking for a cookbook solution.

When I was in high school I taught some summer school for grade school kids. We had 1 hour a day for 15 days to help young kids out with things they just were not getting. I had this one boy who was lost doing multiplication. My real teacher guide instructed me to not bother doing multiplication tables with him as he would learn that on his own, though we did drill some on those he was given one of those multiplication charts. Then I got him started on things like 5 x 20, 82 x 200, showing him how to do things with powers of ten. On the last day I gave him 4 problems: 234 x 5, 234 x 60, 234 x 700, and finally 234 x 765. He did the first three himself, and I talked him through the last. All on one sheet of paper. Then I circled the intermediate terms in the last problem and drew lines to the work he had done himself.

He got quiet for a while but I could see him intently staring at the numbers... then he let out an OHHHHHH!

He got it, it clicked. He knew it and I knew he knew it too. It was hard not to hug him as it made me so proud of him.

Moments like that are the best things in life. As I grow older I hope to pass on a few of the things I learned.

Heck, everyone starts as a noob.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. Time to die.
 

Kermit2

Joined Feb 5, 2010
4,162
I LOVE to help someone understand something. Like you, it gives me a feeling that is hard to describe, but one I want to feel again and again.

On a more personal level, I need to try harder with my tendency to become short tempered. Ineffectiveness of my pain killers and posting here in the forums at those times is something I will try to not do so much. :)
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
AG, I have watched you engage with the most obtuse people, and go on for hundreds of exchanges. It makes me think you get paid for your work here because I wouldn't do what you do even if I got paid! I recognize that I have a limited ability to make a silk purse out of a sows ear. The first time I taught a class and turned from the blackboard to see every student except one, fast asleep, I quit.

If you walk willingly into these situations, and keep coming back for more, hundreds of times in a row, how can you complain? It is you who keeps presenting your butt for the kicking.

I also have no idea if this site has a policy about sweating blood for the benefit of every person that asks a question. I haven't actually read the terms of service. I just help a few that sound like they can read English and know better than to stick a fork in an outlet. Maybe that makes me a cherry picker, but I'd have migrane headaches and chewed fingernails if I tried to do what you do.

I think you are driving yourself to the laughing academy. I think you should sit quietly somewhere and reconsider your priorities.

With utmost respect, #12
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
While not young(63) at electronics I'm a noob, but not nearly as much as a year ago.

Reading the books( and I have over 50) It just doesn't click on some things. But I read most of the noob questions, and sometimes the explanations snap into place.

AG you spent your life time as an EE or similar, I spent mine as a tool and die maker. You know way, way more about electronics, and you should. But I can machine and fabricate rings around you(probably). Does that make you smarter than me? Does that make me smarter than you? Only in what we know.

The participation on any web site is voluntary. Helping some one learn/understand is a gift, to both you and the one thats learning. Knowledge is to precious to take to the grave.

TO ALL THAT HELP ON THIS AND ALL SITES THANK YOU!!!!! EVEN THE NOOBS!!!
 

GetDeviceInfo

Joined Jun 7, 2009
2,192
I've found there are two educators, institutional and industry. I try to balance the two, but find that institutional training is becoming less as I age. I come here because some of the queries, no matter how simple, have me digging out my old notes/texts/internetting, to refresh. I only engage in the topics that interest me, letting others stew over Noobs.
 

Thread Starter

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
AG, I have watched you engage with the most obtuse people, and go on for hundreds of exchanges. It makes me think you get paid for your work here because I wouldn't do what you do even if I got paid!
If you walk willingly into these situations, and keep coming back for more, hundreds of times in a row, how can you complain? It is you who keeps presenting your butt for the kicking.
I am paid by my government to do whatever I want whenever I want because I am officially a retired senior. I poke around about 6 forums.
I battle nOObs only when the complicated threads are finished.

I think you are driving yourself to the laughing academy. I think you should sit quietly somewhere and reconsider your priorities.
The stupid foreign school kids cause me to stay away from here for hours.
 

magnet18

Joined Dec 22, 2010
1,227
Mostly, you need to work on your transistor theory. But you are getting there, so I would more likely to put you into intermediate.

I was where you are now in high school, lots a snipits of information, but lacking a comprehensive whole.
Yea, I like the black and white on/off pure logic stuff, the beta values and voltage drop stuff throws me for a loop sometimes.
I'm getting better with IC's though :D

The stupid foreign school kids cause me to stay away from here for hours.
You know he's only 11, and operating in a foreign (not so much anymore) language, right?

And it's not hard to just ignore the posts, you can usually tell by the titles if they're him. I usually try to reply to his since I actually know the answers most of the time. :D
(that's unusual for me)
 

steveb

Joined Jul 3, 2008
2,436
You are not a nOOb. Many of your replies are intelligent and correct but not all of them. Keep learning.
:p Applies to all of us, at any level, doesn't it?

For me, the noobs don't bother me, as long as their motivation is to learn. But, I get really mad at those 1 time posters that either show no appreciation or don't even check back after asking a question. The other day I threw out my back reaching for a dusty old top-shelf book, to help such a person. My very helpful answer, with 8 scanned pages from the book, sat there without the person even logging back in. So, I deleted it rather than kill 10 Mbytes of memory for all time henceforth. Waste of my time too, although my chiropractor appreciates the donation to his kid's college fund.

That's the last time I try to help anyone with less than ten posts, or two threads.
 

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
You know, there is a distinction between noobs and newbies (newbs). Hard to tell at the beginning, but the internet generally approves dishing it out to the noobs, not to the newbs, though.
 
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