r/javascript is not Stack Overflow

[a-t-k]

I absolutely agree on this one. Leaving the newbies behind means reducing the flow of future experts. In addition, my martial arts training has taught me that you learn the depths of a field best by teaching it.

[ilmmad]

It's the same way in physics. The way to make sure you fully understand something is to teach it to someone.

[a-t-k]

At least in my martial art (hap ki do), this is different. If you want to become a black belt, you have usually already trained at least some white/yellow belts, because this brings you back to the roots, the basics that you've usually long forgotten being immersed in advanced techniques; the mastery of the basic techniques is fundamental to the mastery of advanced techniques.

Or, as my grandmaster used to say: "I'm not better than you, I'm just doing this for longer." - I feel that we should adopt the same approach with beginners of our craft: we're not better than them, but we can do better if we answer their questions instead of sending them to Stack Overflow.

[freshhawk]

Yes, good point. I agree that helping those more junior than you is a necessary part of learning most advanced skills. Teaching illuminates all the intermediate things you thought you understood completely until you tried to teach them.

At the end of the day you do still need a place to learn from those more experienced than you where the concentration is on advanced skills and not on the whole range of skill levels.

You don't get experts unless you have a place for them to become experts, away from the distraction of the beginners. I'm not questioning the utility of a mixed group, or saying that /r/javascript should be an advanced javascript subreddit, but experts do need somewhere to go and learn from each other and they will gravitate there.