A number of things gelled together this morning that necessitated this post.

a) this post by Jeff Prosise of Wintellect about the conundrum he has when asked so many questions in an email that are already answered in one (or more) of his (and others’) books. But he is concerned (from experience) that suggesting the book as a reply, that the person would think he is only attempting to promote book sales. However, if you saw the email Jeff recieved, it is full of incredibly basic questions and way beyond what is reasonable to ask in an email to a stranger. Jeff is very generous with his time, but this person was basically asking for a personal education by email from Jeff.

b) I asked a question on the WSE newsgroup that turned out to be not about WSE but my own lack of good debugging knowledge. I haven’t read John Robbin’s (what I know is an) excellent book on Debugging in .NET. John is another one of the 3 founding partners of Wintellect. Also thanks to Hervey Wilson for his patience in answering my many recent questions in the newsgroups!

c) In July I had a conversation with Jeffrey Richter who was curious about how I found the experience of trying to work in C# when my real knowledgebase if coding in VB. The things that I found confusing astonished Jeff who (very politely) asked if I had ever read his book on programming with .NET.  I know that this book (Applied .NET Programming in  C# or VB version) book is a bible. I have had it here and passed it on to a vtdotnet member and had looked at bits and pieces but not read it. I actually have re-ordered it and am still awaiting my new copy (which I won’t give away this time). Jeff, of course is the 3rd of the Wintellect founding members.

So what am I getting at here? Clearly there is SO much excellent information out there. Clearly it is impossible to get to and digest it all. I wish I was able to find the time and energy (like the amazing devourer of .NET books, Jason Salas) to read all of these books that I have heard SO many wonderful things about. But I also wish I had time to take my dogs for longer and more fun walks, etc. etc.

I think it also gets back to the wonderful point made by Leon Bambrick that reminds me not to beat myself up that I am not an expert (or even 1/2 of an expert) at debugging in .NET. There are SO many things in .NET that are fascinating and important to know and leverage. I *do * know that in time, I focus on one thing after another and learn more and more and more — just not all at once. It’s been two years already! Eeek.

So I just suppose that this post is a reminder to myself and anyone else who could use it that you and I are not inadequate! <g>

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