Consult a Subject Matter Expert Not Your Head When You're Stuck With Something

Here I am with some updates. I recently learned, the hard way, that you when are consulting a subject matter expert, don't use your brain in the midst of consultation. From ages, people have realized that you should always provide accurate information and avoid hiding facts to your lawyer, doctor or police. This advocacy can be and should be extended to other areas also. I had to set up a feature in one our websites. I integrated an open source software to my existing code to enable the new feature. The process was rather complex and I had to follow the step by step instructions from the open source software documentation site. I went on performing the steps. Everything appeared to be fine until I encountered step number 27. I was stuck at step 27. The system would not accept this command. I tried to get past step 27 for couple of hours ; but I couldn't. I stepped out for a quick break. The weather was hot and I felt like drinking Coke. Coke was not available in the store nearby. I proceeded to another shop. Same story; no Coke. I tried yet another shop, same news; no cool drinks. Coca-Cola factory is just one mile far from my house and I still can't get Coke anywhere in the vicinity from the past few weeks.

I went back to work after quenching my thirst with a cup of tea. I carefully looked at the steps I was performing and I discovered that the problem was with step 3. The instructions in the document asked me a create a directory in a different location. I used my brain and I thought step 3 didn't matter. Unfortunately it did. This time I religiously followed the instructions in the document and it worked great. So, when you are consulting a subject matter expert, never ever use your brain in between.

Among other things, Gautham and Co. have put up a wastebasket which you can use to throw your online litter.

One of my friends read my blog post about IRC and was able to solve his pressing technical problems. He also did not care to follow the steps religiously and posted his nickserv password on a public channel. Oh, I have company.