Ask HN: Where can you safely ask beginner-level questions online in 2023?

Post by whitfieldsdad » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 8:49 PM UTC

thfuran wrote: post #9

h2odragon wrote: post #4

Part of it may be that since wikipedia etc exists; you're "supposed to do your homework" before even asking. The idea that people might discuss things from and in a state of ignorance as a means of learning or even just social interaction, rather than from laziness ... that's not something most people think of. "Sophomoric discussion" is an insult now, somehow. It's fun how often things that "everybody knows" are, on…

"Sophomoric" was never a compliment.

Post by whitfieldsdad » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 8:56 PM UTC

thfuran wrote: post #12

whitfieldsdad wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand the meaning of sophomoric discussion, but, is it basically being open to, and discussing thoughts, ideas, concepts, etc., that you're not an expert in? Isn't talking about, and exploring things that you're not an expert in, good, rather than bad, as that's how you learn new things?

>Isn't talking about, and exploring things that you're not an expert in, good, rather than bad, as that's how you learn new things? Potentially, but that's not what "sophomoric" means. It's roughly the intersection of overconfident and immature.

Post by whitfieldsdad » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 9:01 PM UTC

thfuran wrote: post #14

whitfieldsdad wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, gotcha, I didn't realize that sophomore was an insult - I just thought it meant you were a student

It is in reference to sophomore year as the second year of study—being like a kid who has studied a bit and fancies that they now know a lot. But "sophomore" itself doesn't have the negative connotation.

Post by narag » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 10:51 PM UTC

whitfieldsdad wrote: post #5

nojs wrote: post #3

Honestly ChatGPT is really good for this. You can ask stupid questions all day and the more basic they are, the more likely it is to know the answers. I use it all the time to get a basic understanding of topics that I know nothing about.

Honestly, I probably ask ChatGPT 3-10 "stupid questions" a day. Yesterday, I asked ChatGPT which file formats are most popular for storing knowledge graphs in flatfiles, and loved that I didn't have to spend the remainder of the afternoon apologizing for being as dumb as an apple or an egg. I wonder if my main problem is that I don't know the level at which most people are at, or aim to be at before asking questions,…

Post by whitfieldsdad » Fri, Sep 08, 2023, 1:49 AM UTC

thfuran wrote: post #18

whitfieldsdad wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I get that, I just didn't realize that being a beginner in a particular field of study was a bad thing or something to be frowned upon. If there's a trope about people new to a particular field being overconfident in what they know, maybe it's just human nature rather than a fatal character flaw, or sign of immaturity. (i.e. since you'll likely have the same sense of overconfidence the next time you try somethi…

>I just didn't realize that being a beginner in a particular field of study was a bad thing or something to be frowned upon. It isn't really. Novice, for example, doesn't have negative connotations. The other thing sophomores have going for them is that they're typically teenagers or barely not, and an adult not having grown up generally does have negative connotations.