[LSW]

The following is the answer I gave someone today who said they had a "stupid question," afterwards I remembered all the posts here stating their question was stupid, it is like meeting someone and saying "Hi, my name is Kyle and I am stupid." So I figured this post is worth making sticky in hopes you new folk will read it and just ask rather than demeaning yourselves. Some people in some forums will see a stupid question and point it out as such, but not here. KillerSites is meant for new people and we still get a lot of experienced ones too because we treat all fairly. Cheers and welcome to the family, you might like some popcorn before you continue...----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Young Frankenstein (1974)... know the movie? Well Doc Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) sends Igor (Marty Feldman) to get a specific brain, which he then drops. So he covers it up by grabbing a new brain. So the Monster is not real bright and he asks about the brain so Igor has to admit he dropped it, so he took the brain of a woman named Abby Normal... or Abnormal...

Whenever someone points out that they are asking a stupid question I think of that. The two just connect in my mind. I guess to me it illustrates how people are individuals and see things differently, ones Abnormal is another ones Abby Normal.

So is asking how to back up a site dumber than not doing it and losing everything?


Yes, for me it would be a stupid question, I have been doing this since 1999, I should know it already. But for a new person, how are they to know until someone tells them? I new nothing in 1998 and early 1999 too, I was taught and questions were asked. It is so second nature to me that it honestly is not something I would just think to tell anyone, it is so ingrained that my mind expects everyone to know it... so we can only realize it is not simply known and we need to teach it unless someone asks and reminds us.

So ask questions, that is why we spend our lives here, helping you all for free when we could be working or playing with the kids, all with the expectation that when another newby comes and asks a "stupid" question, you will tell them the answer and point out not asking is dumber than not knowing. All of us here started from scratch... and all of us here enjoy watching those who asked "Stupid Questions" answering the new folks a year later and explaining that it is not stupid, it is just grabbing Abby Normal's brain.

[Pacino]

I am a firm believer....

Ask a stupid question and be stupid for all of 5 minutes, then you know the answer and your not stupid any longer.

However, say nothing and you remain stupid forever more.

[benjaminmorgan]

And when we learn something new we can pass it on as well, keeping questions answered fast.

[bsmbahamas]

and like my favorite mentor Brian Tracy is so found of repeating...

"No one is better than you and no one is smarter than you. People are just smarter or better in different areas at different times."

case in point, I know how to airbrush a persons finger nails using stencils, but my wife who is a trained nail technician would run cirles around me all day long, and i can make pancakes 20 times better than most people. lol.

[virtual]

@bs mBahamas
I love your Aristotle quote, I always say "If you don't use it, you lose it!" because I know it to be very true for me.

[LSW]

Here is another example of experience:

I am an Analyst/Programmer 3 for the state. We recently hired a A/P 4 on to our team. She knows very little, so does that make it questionable that she out ranks me?

No

• She has been with the state longer than me.
• As my supervisor put it, "You can only know what you are exposed to."

She has worked for years in a different division where all she did was maintain applications they already had. She knew them in and out and was good at what she did.

I on the other hand have had two programming jobs creating applications and using different technologies to do so. even though I was only an A/P 2 and now A/P 3. I have worked in SQL and Oracle. with T-SQL, P-SQL and MySQL, with SQL Reports and Crystal Reports, Java (), Flex, ASP, ASP.Net, C#, and a history in Perl, Python, PHP & C++.

She is not a bad A/P 4 because she does not know much because she was never exposed to much but was good at what she did. So We help each other. Some folks I have worked with would say she should know "Everything" already as a 4, but that is simply impossible. We can only know what we are exposed to. She is new to this environment, I have been working here for 3 years, so the supervisor counts on me more then the next higher ranking, If I had gone to her office it would be a whole different thing with me as the newbie with questions.

So your questions cannot be dumb if you were never shown or exposed to it. Stef can run circles around me with Java, but doesn't know much of anything about Flex... but I still look up to him as the better programmer.

Cheers

[LSW]

Correction!!

As today is the first day of our tourist season, the first Cruise Ship docks in just hours, I would like to qualify this thread... Stupid questions do exist, Just not about web subjects in this website.

But they do exist in the world: (Reminder, I live in Alaska)

• Do you take American Money? (Yes, every third Tuesday between 1 am and 1:10 am. 5 to 1 exchange rate) - 50th US STATE
• Do you need a green card to work here? - 50th US STATE
• Nice that you can bring your families with you, So where do you all go when Tourist Season ends? Capital of the 50th US STATE, we live and work here all year around.
• Is your Glacier male or female? - Not even going to touch that one.
• What altitude are we at? - They just stepped off a Cruise ship, likely a lower altitude than their room on the ship.
• When can I see the Midnight Sun? - Best Guess... Midnight! or walk to the tourist shop by that name down town. Oh, and midnight somewhere over the Arctic Circle and not next.

Yea, dumb questions exist, these are but a few I have been asked, just don't worry about them in this forum. Dumb questions from from lack of common sense, we are about learning things you cannot know early on, hence no dumb questions.

Cheers