Finishing up Chapter 02

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@@ -40,4 +40,12 @@ Measuring ourselves on the quantity of others output is easy and seductive but i
 
 There can be times when it is useful to compare ourselves with other coders. Sometimes we can learn about new technologies or new methodologies by looking at the work of others. But it's very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that because we're not at the level of other coders that we're somehow inferior to them. Rather than looking at other coders as competition we should look at them as companions. We're all in this profession working to make our respective projects better. With Open Source / Free Software we have a unique opportunity to be able to look at how other folks do their work in public. We can learn from the code of others much in the same way that scientists can look at the papers of other scientists to see what worked (by replication and repetition). No coder is completely isolated from the work of others. Rare is the programmer that achieved everything they achieved without looking at the work of others to help their own coding efforts. We all learn from each other. But rather than be intimidated by the work of others we can instead take it apart and learn from it. And if we're lucky we can have the opportunity to ask others about how the code works and why they chose to do it that way.
 
-There's value in being able to ask questions of our fellow coders. We tend to overlook asking questions for feeling like we're going to ask something obvious or ask a question that will make us feel inadequate for asking. Asking questions is very useful when we don't understand what is going on with a particular piece of code. Finding other programmers who don't mind answering questions is valuable to our learning process.
+There's value in being able to ask questions of our fellow coders. We tend to overlook asking questions for feeling like we're going to ask something obvious or ask a question that will make us feel inadequate for asking. Asking questions is very useful when we don't understand what is going on with a particular piece of code. There are coders out there tho don't mind answering questions, and my hope is that you find them. Granted there are some who are very busy; who might not have the time to answer our questions in a manner that is useful to us. But if we are truly stuck and have exhausted all other avenues perhaps we can ask questions of them that don't require much of their time and effort and we can both be happy for the interaction.
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+There is an art to asking questions and it can be frustrating when folks don't answer our questions, or come back with other questions / suggestions that are less than helpful. This can manifest itself in exchanges where person A asks: "I'd like to know how to do X" and persons B and C respond "I would do Y instead". It's easy to be angry at those folks and think "they're not answering my question!". It's also easy to get embroiled in exchanges with folks about the merits of doing Y where clearly I had inteneded to do X all along, thank you very much. But if we re-frame the experience as "this person is trying to help me; perhaps there is something in this recommendation that might be helpful." then we can have a better conversation. 
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+Of course there are folks who don't respond with your best interests at heart and are only interested in pushing their own world-view upon you. And it can take a lot of energy to engage with these folks to tell them "no, I really, really intended to learn more about X". I don't have good answers for how to handle these folks outside of thanking them for their time and finding someone else to ask. But this is also part of our growth process.
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+If we look at other coders as our traveling companions on this journey; as peers in our coding practice, then we can realize that we're all in this together. Even if someone has many more years of experience than you they are your peer. You have knowledge and experience they don't have, and they have experience and knowledge you don't have. If we strip away the barriers of ranking and meritocracy we can better engage with each other and learn from each other.
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+The journey to becoming a better programmer is long and hard. We need the best companions we can find to help us along the way. And not just the technically-skilled companions but the companions that we can talk to when the day is done and commiserate about our struggles together.