Ask, and ye shall receive.

Here's my SO profile screen[0]. You can tell that it's me, because of my dragon logo, which is actually a refinement of my signature from the days I wanted to be an artist[1]. I actually make an effort to be "non-anonymous," these days. I feel that it helps me to be a better netizen.

The first thing that you may notice about my profile, is that the Answer[2]/Question[3] ratio is about 0.6. That's unusual for many of the more senior members (I've been there for about 15 years. I used to have another account, and nuked it in disgust, many years ago, then decided I was being a big baby, and came crawling back. I've been a member since, but the name was changed, somewhere along the line, as I decided that "non-anonymity" was my lodestar).

That's because I don't go there to answer questions, or prove how smart I am. I go to solve problems, and remove roadblocks, in my day-to-day work.

Here's my latest question[4]. It's a really basic question. One I could have found the answer to, myself, but I would have had to spend a bunch of time in the ugly, chaotic documentation that Apple has for their bundle hashes. Probably would have taken me an hour or so.

I should tell you a bit about myself.

I have been writing software, since my days of 6800 machine code, in 1983. I've been writing Apple software since 1986. I have been shipping software, since 1986/7 (depending on how you define "shipping").

This ain't my first rodeo.

I've also been training and mentoring folks since I was 19. One thing that I learned, very early on, is that the people I'm training, usually (not "sometimes," "usually") have more expertise than I, in matters outside the scope of the class.

I learned to respect my students. I'm not better than they are. I just have a bit of knowledge that can help them, and it's an Honor to be allowed to provide it.

When someone asks me "what I do," I generally respond with "I solve problems."

That's what I do. Every. Single. Day. Every day, I am presented with a "Argh! We're all gonna die!" problem; often multiple times a day[5].

And I solve them. That doesn't make me unique, in the slightest. Lots of people here, can easily say the same, and they probably solve much more difficult issues than I. That's one of the reasons I like coming here. I'm not the smartest person in the room. I have found great comfort in surrounding myself with people that humble me. It can be difficult, at times, but I feel that I need to learn something new, every day, and I don't get that, by staying in my comfort zone.

I also speak Swift without an accent. I've been writing Swift, seven days a week, 52.14 weeks per year, since the day it was announced, in 2014. I've also been shipping apps in Swift, since not too long, afterwards.

Everything I do is geared towards "ship."

That often means that my solutions and workflows are not always optimal, or "academically pure." Duct tape and baling wire. Make it work. I take a great deal of care in the Quality of my work, but it is not always "exemplary." It needs to work, work well, and be maintainable. I also like to get to the point, where I leave it behind, and move on to the next project[6].

SO helps me to quickly find "correct" solutions. I don't like duct tape and baling wire. I'd like to do it right, the first time. That's pretty much exactly the spirit behind my latest question [4].

Note that the question got almost immediate downvotes and close votes. That happened within seconds of it being posted.

But it was answered. It was answered in a rather condescending way, but I got what I needed. I then took that answer, and configured it into something that I could ship[7], and, eventually, into something that I could share[8].

Now, that was a productive interaction for me. It gave me the answer I needed, I was able to greencheck someone for answering it, even if they did so, looking down on me, and I was able to repackage their response into something that can be quite useful, in the future.

When I ask well-researched, well-documented, windy questions, they are usually ignored, like so[9], and I end up answering my own question. Sometimes, these self-answered questions get fairly popular[10], or even unanswered ones[11].

It's fairly plain that the SO folks think of people that ask questions as "supplicants," and to be looked down upon. Look at all the folks with massive scores, and single-digit question counts (the digit is frequently "0").

Here's an exercise: Go to Meta, and suggest that people applying for positions of authority have at least a 10% question-to-answer ratio.

Why would you want a general that doesn't know what it's like to be pinned down in a shellhole?

Enjoy your downvotes and attacks.

Happy now?

[0] https://stackoverflow.com/users/879365/chris-marshall

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34654770

[2] https://stackoverflow.com/users/879365/chris-marshall?tab=an...

[3] https://stackoverflow.com/users/879365/chris-marshall?tab=qu...

[4] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75361518/accessing-an-io...

[5] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/thats-not-what-ships...

[6] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/leaving-a-legacy/

[7] https://stackoverflow.com/a/75364118/879365

[8] https://github.com/RiftValleySoftware/RVS_Generic_Swift_Tool...

[9] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62697317/strange-link-er...

[10] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66736704/ibdesignable-ui...

[11] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26736909/how-do-i-add-th...