StackExchange was the most discouraging place I ever asked a question as a beginner.

The two questions I ever asked were immediately downvoted to 0 before an answer was even given. And then the answer basically called out my errors without explaining how to fix them. The most helpful replies were people just giving me a full set of code that worked, but they never explained how it worked.

So I went back to lurking and hoping someone else has my question.

It's weird, IRL and in some online venues, it seems like people are usually friendly and ready to helps newbies learn.

But then plenty of other online spaces seem to just invite elitism and negativity. The culture of 'rtm', 'lmgtfy' and 'marked as duplicate' doesn't encourage people to respect others.

As you can see, Lemmy has quite a few of these people, too.

My only question is - would the issue be solved if you followed the manual properly?

Just an asshole. My experience is different. Know that you learned from others and stood on the shoulders of giants.

The whole "pay it forward" culture is a thing. So next time, ignore that fucker and teach new people.

I believe they feel they have power and are superior to you because they have more knowledge. And you know how people tend to act in that circumstances.

Being good at programming does not correlate with good people skills or good teaching skills. As you have noticed asking questions on the Internet attracts assholes that want to flex their "intellectual superiority" at others.

Learning programming is hard. Assholes making beginners afraid to ask questions makes it even harder. But I promise you that once you get decent at it, it goes from frustrating to rewarding.

Often times people with jobs that don’t involve a lot of human interaction have those jobs for a reason. They maybe don’t enjoy it or aren’t good at it. There’s also the gatekeeping aspect and the bootstraps (no pun intended) way of thinking. I had to do it this way and it was hard for me so you have to do it like that too. Also, lots of people losing jobs, the industry can be more competitive now. Good luck!

I'm sorry this happened to you. Just know that there are assholes everywhere, and they often tend to be the most vocal, especially when they can hide behind anonymity. Try not to let them discourage you.

Sorry you had this experience. Not all of us are like that though. I just thought of my own experience and I usually try to find an answer with a web search instead of asking in a forum. Most of the time someone else already had the problem and was brave enough to ask. This is especially true for beginner problems. As rough as some of those people can be, there already is a tutorial for almost anything imaginable. And it goes both ways. Don't ask for stuff that can easily be found on the web. (I'm not implying you did, this is just a general tip)

Engineers often have poor self-esteem. You can learn to program. Anyone can. It just takes work and persistence. Algebra is mandatory. Geometry helps, especially if you're doing graphics. Calculus will be very useful, but not necessary for most application level work. Begin with math. The rest is syntax and rules of thumb.