Why I Won't Help You Via Email

I’ve been blogging and writing for almost three years now, and a few times a week I get emails or Facebook and Telegram messages from people I don’t really know. They ask questions about Java, management, object-oriented programming, and other things they believe I understand and can help them with. Well, my contact details are published right in the header on my blog—what else would I expect, right? True, but even though I always reply to them, I never answer their questions.

Why?

Because it’s ineffective.

Honestly, I believe that the more people I help, the better. The bigger my contribution to the community is, the better—for both the community and me personally. That’s why I try to answer every single comment on this blog, on my YouTube channel, in our Gitter chat, and on Twitter. I spend at least two hours a day on this activity.

That’s why I’m asking everybody who seeks help from me personally to go to one of these public channels and ask there. Then, I will find their questions and answer them. Maybe even someone else will reply, because the community is pretty big now.

When the question is asked publicly, everybody can see our conversation and learn something from it. This is the most effective use of my time and the time of those who are asking.

Thus, you can expect no help provided privately, but all public questions will be answered.