Nothing Feels Better Than Someone Else Answering Questions For You

Thanks a lot, Marcel Schilling!

Yihui Xie 2018-01-17

A few days ago Frank asked a bookdown question on Stack Overflow (many thanks for asking on Stack Overflow first!), and also posted it to GitHub (rstudio/bookdown#515) last night. When I woke up this morning, it had been answered by Marcel Schilling (of course, I’ll award 500 points). It seems he could read my mind, because he said this in the GitHub issue:

If your problem is solved, don’t forget to close this issue.

Yes! The fewer open issues I see, the happier I feel. Every single GitHub issue requires a decision: Should I fix it? Answer it? Ignore it? Ask for more info? Close it? When I go through a large number of GitHub issues, I have to constantly switch channels in my mind, and I guess you all know the initial friction when you are about to tackle a new problem (you need time to warm up — perhaps take a look at Twitter, have some snacks, and so on, and then take a deep breath, only to find it is already 5pm). In my busy (or lazy) days, I almost wish I could pay you to close your own issues if they are not really big deal.

Marcel also pointed out that one could help edit the source of the bookdown book and send a pull request if the book is not clear. Joyful tears were rolling down my face. I love people who know how to edit files online on GitHub. I, just, love, them.

Tears rolling down my face

Thanks, Marcel. You made my day better.