kieran,

We use what is called a mentoring system where we asign novice designers or programmers to work with an expert. The idea is not to simply hand over solutions but to develop in the novice the ability to solve his own obstacles. That is after all what engineering is all about.

Steve's practice of quickly shutting down topics when it appears someone is affectively just asking for answers to homework or a prepackaged project solution, is a response to abuse by those that we not even taking the time to think about it first.

While I think its been excessively applied, it may be to get the message across decisively. This causes a problem to proper mentoring because its most efficient to have a discussion before the project gets underway. But the idea is to hear what the novice is thinking, not about hearing what the expert would do. The expert steers the novice onto the proper course of DISCOVERY. If his solution is futile, the mentor should steer the novice to quickly discover that. I believe in letting failure occur be it teaches better than success. Not a catatrophic failure, but one that quickly lets the novice discover he's on the wrong track. Mentoring is mostly about imparting mentoal skills for attacking problems and somewhat about imparting better solutions.

I never hand over a circuit or routine to a novice I'm mentoring. If his approach is lacking something, I'll open a topic he needs to study and through my mini-lectures on the topic, he usually makes the connection that it can be applied in his project. Its better than he makes the connection than that I say, Here... use this instead.

So, this is directed to all novices and students requesting help, before you ask for help, tell us what you've already figured out and how you think you can solve your project. Experts are much more likely to help someone who is self-relient and really thinking about the problem than merely to assist someone attempting to use the internet to copy answers for a test.

aka j