On the other hand, when someone appears to be making an earnest effort, but can't quite solve their problem, more often than not, I'll give 'em a piece of code.
"a piece of code", absolutely, however giving the complete solution does have a problem. As there is more than one way to skin a cat the one that "appears to be making an earnest effort, but can't quite solve their problem" may have an almost working solution that is diamentrally opposite the one you provide. Thus the experience of "getting that last little pesky bug" out is lost when the original code get trashed and the code you provided substituted. I intend none and am expressing no disrespect or characterization of any memebers when I quote "only an idiot can come up with a non-traditional (and maybe better) solution to a problem".

I have often seen code from novices that made me shake my head, but on a few glorious occasions I have said "I never imagined that way to do it, that is different and better, great"

Erik