Hi, On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 7:51 AM, wm4 <nfx...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Mar 2015 10:43:55 +0100 > Stefano Sabatini <stefa...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On date Friday 2015-03-20 09:57:58 +0100, wm4 encoded: > > > On Thu, 19 Mar 2015 20:43:55 -0400 > > > "Ronald S. Bultje" <rsbul...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > > > On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 4:53 PM, Nicolas George <geo...@nsup.org> > wrote: > > > > > > > > > +If at any point you have any question, do not hesitate to ask > them. > > > > > +Actually, yes, hesitate a few seconds, in case this question will > make you > > > > > +look dump. So read on. > > > > > > > > > > > > > s/dump/dumb/. > > > > > > > > Also, I'm not sure that's a good attitude, we surely want students > to be > > > > able to look up google'able stuff themselves, but asking questions > to their > > > > mentor should be encouraged (and if the mentor thinks it's > goole'able, he > > > > should feel comfortable saying so). > > > > > > > > +1 > > > > > > Sure, we require the candidates to think on their own (and experience > > > shows that unfortunately shows that they don't always do), but this > > > language is just offensive and also seems to discourage asking > > > questions at all. Maybe rephrase it as something like "While GSoC > > > attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, it's OK to > > > ask questions if you're stuck." See, now we don't think you're dumb > > > anymore, but yes we expect that you put some effort into it. > > > > I don't think this is offensive but smart candidates will figure when > > and how to ask good questions by themselves, being told explicitly > > would be annoying for them. > > > > Also the focus is not about smart/silly, it is about finding a good > > tradeoff between mentee and mentor's time effort when asking/replying > > to a question. In general mentors' time is precious (because they're > > usually busy and/or are delivering their free time), so the > > candidate/mentee should do most of the effort, and ask questions only > > when he/she's put some efforts into trying to solve an issue, and show > > this effort when putting out the question. > > Of course, but telling a candidate that his question may be interpreted > as dumb is the wrong way to go about it. It sound dismissive and > unfriendly. Making demands is ok, but premature "punishment" or > prejudice is not. (Yeah, we know most candidates will probably be bad, > but there's no reason to repel potentially good ones just out of > pessimism.) > > > So, adding my two cents: > > > > "GSoC attendants should be able to solve problems on their own, but > > it's fine to ask questions if you're stuck or if you are not sure > > about your task. When asking questions, you are also expected to show > > how are you trying to solve the related issue." > > Sounds ok to me. +1 to both. Ronald _______________________________________________ ffmpeg-devel mailing list ffmpeg-devel@ffmpeg.org http://ffmpeg.org/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-devel
