I firmly believe in "give someone a fish and you feed them for a day, teach them to fish and you feed them for life". However, teaching takes time and effort, something I am willing to do. Unfortunately not everyone wants to learn: "just gimme the fish!". This is also true for some students (note I am NOT generalising here, there are many hardworking students out there). I recently came across one such case on a calculator forum. He (or she) wanted help with solving a differential equation on the calculator. I (and others) recognised the equation as coming from electrical/electronics field. However, it was evident from the original post that he had put it incorrectly into the calculator. After giving a few directions and hints to get him thinking, the response was "just tell me how to put it in the calculator". He has not come back on that particular subject. Later that same person posted a link about calculator software that showed solutions step-by-step. Unfortunately this was for another calculator, and he proceeded to badger forum members to write such software for him.
I've given up on trying to help that person. If there was indication of wanting to learn, I would gladly help - but there doesn't seem to be. You can lead a horse to water...
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