Other people’s problems are great

Tom Kyte and others talk excellently as usual about participation in the Oracle commuity.

About 8 years ago, I used to use the various community channels quite heavily – both seeking advice and offering. For whatever reason, this used to be the less open ones such as Experts Exchange.

Anyway, without realising it, I must have become a lot more introspective. I only tended to visit the community when I myself was stuck. I know I must have been really busy at times, but no excuse, who isn’t. And after a while, I just forgot.

Where I currently work, they have a private chat system with all sorts of channels of interest, including a Oracle channel. Huzzah. I had forgotten how cool it is to try to answer other people’s questions.

The great thing about other people’s problems is that they are often so much more interesting than your own work and what you are meant to be working on. And sometimes it’s an opportunity to have a bit of focus on that feature you’ve been meaning to look at, or a refresher on something you’d unwittingly forgotten, or just helping a fellow teammate out of a fix.

And you can always laugh at some people’s problems / attitude. Wowzers Penny! That’s an extreme. Sometimes you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink, but that is just another level.