When to ask for help when stuck on a technical problem

I thought this blog post by +Matthew Ringel was a concise and useful summary of how (and when) to ask for help when stuck on a technical problem:
https://blogs.akamai.com/2013/10/you-must-try-and-then-you-must-ask.html
I often find coworkers skipping step #1: working at the problem a little longer and documenting/recording/reviewing what you've already tried.

When I do step #1 I often solve the problem myself.  I might be in the middle of an email explaining what the problem is.  I owe it to them to explain what I've tried, what results I got, etc.  Most of the time the solution then presents itself!  I then just delete the email draft and keep plugging away.

But then sometimes I wait too long for step #3 - going and asking for help.

And then sometimes, I just need a rubber duck: http://www.rubberduckdebugging.com/



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