It’s still useful when it’s wrong because it can give you the jist of what should be done. If it uses a library or function that doesn’t exist, you’ll still be informed as to what it was intending for the process at that point. I’ve often gone and just replaced the made-up code with custom code that does the same thing.
It is nice to generate generalizable code examples, to give me clues how stuff works. I find that my work (marine biogeochemistry) is obscure enough that there’s a certain level where I am still on my own. Which is a good sign for my future employability!
Yes that is what I thought too. Google is still good for looking up movies and games and such, but for tech stuff and shopping it has noticably declined.
I’m currently trying out the first 300 free searches with Kagi. It’s only been a day but it’s already looking like I’m going to subscribe.
Remember when you got good at Google and you started to notice that you could find what you needed better than most other people? It’s a bit like that and it’s refreshing.
The most cathartic moment of my entire life was when I encountered that exact thing in a thread from over a decade ago expecting that to be it and lost all hope, only to find somebody replied calling them out and telling them to share their solution or future googlers were gonna be very upset. They posted their solution and it did, indeed, work.
Don’t even remember what the issue was, but the wave of relief was amazing enough that I still remember the feeling to this day.
The moment I find something even remotely useful for a problem I faced and solved, I am saving it on the Internet Archive.
And I try to not be DenverCoder9
Trying my best.
If you want to help save anything, maybe participate with the rest of us: warrior.archiveteam.org
If you have a spare PC/docker container you only require an internet connection and electricity. And it may save some picture or reddit post/guide/advice for the folks in the future. :)
I have more than once found a post my exact problem with an exact solution and sources, only to go back and realize it was my own post from n years back
I love it when the reason I’m the only one with the problem is that I didn’t notice something extremely obvious that solves that problem. I’m an idiot and shouldn’t be trusted with anything ever.
Someone has to bite the bullet and ask the obvious questions. Everybody starts somewhere and learns at their own pace, so there’s probably dozens more with the same problem but too afraid to ask.
So many of my searches lead to Microsoft forums where my exact issue is posted, MS asks for more information, then some auto-mod closes the issue because there wasn’t any further follow up and they can’t replicate it.
Even worse in my opinion is when you find someone who had the same problem as you and the only person who replies says “use google.” It’s like that’s how I got to this page!