Re:Ask Slashdot (to do your homework) (Score 1)

Actually, I entirely disagree. A very important (and productive) research strategy is to identify people who have expert knowledge and then approach them with succinct, polite, precise questions. This is precisely what Plasmoid has done.

You can learn more in 15 minutes by asking the right person the right questions than you can learn in a month buried in a library. Indeed, I would go further than that. I study mathematics, where the academic literature is often basically impenetrable (journal articles often exist more as an official record of "I got there first!" rather than as a useful source of insight or clarification). If I insisted on "doing my own homework" rather than simply asking the right person the right question, I would probably never discover certain important (but esoteric) mathematical tools relevant to the problems I'm studying.

The internet affords a new forum for soliciting information from experts. The experts can choose whether they will deign to respond, and can chose to remain anonymous (This is a big improvement over a university setting, where anyone can just corner you in your office and waste your time asking you foolish questions). Plasmoid's post wasted about 1 kb of bandwidth and about 10 seconds of your time --probably much less than the banner ad appearing at the top of this page. Please treat the legitimate academic inquiry of others with more respect.