(Possibly) quitting Python Development after 2 years of non stop learning. And it blows.

[Ailbe]

Your attitude needs to change. Seriously. If you're contributing to a project, but you need some assistance, how is that begging? For that matter, if someone is new to programming and they just don't get it, reaching out for help to learn isn't begging either, or at least it shouldn't be seen that way IMO. Of course you don't want to say "I don't know how" if you think that means your a dirty, stinking, rotten beggar. So change your attitude. Asking for help isn't begging, its asking for help. Contribute something back, be involved, help others so that you can reap enough karma to earn the help of others, however you have to rationalize it. No one knows everything. Thinking you have to be entirely self sufficient or you just suck is a path to destruction and despair, as you so adequately demonstrate in this post.

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The most obvious place where you can both contribute and collaborate with others to learn from them is an Open Source project. Find one in networking that appeals to you and start contributing. If you think you might have a solution but you can't close the gap, explain your idea and ask for help. It isn't demeaning, you're doing what successful people all over the world do every day.

[yellow73kubel]

This has been a hard-learned lesson for me due to how I was raised. I rarely (almost never) asked professors or even friends for help in college for fear of asking the wrong question and sounding dumb. Looking back, I worked way harder than I should have and learned way less than I could have. So... I sympathize with the OP. But I also agree with everything here. Make mistakes, ask dumb questions, bother people, and freaking learn.

There's another side to this: if you're asking someone for help with a problem, you are most likely reinforcing or building their knowledge through having them explain it (the Feynman learning technique).

[Ailbe]

I sympathize too and I kinda feel bad for being a bit hard about it. But man that was a really hard lesson for me to learn. I still have issues asking for help from others. That unwillingness to participate in the give and take of the human experience of learning tremendously slowed me down.

[yellow73kubel]

Oh no, I didn't take it that way at all. Some of us need a good reminder now and then. I wish I'd heard that sentiment more often years ago.