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When you have an answer and can give it quickly, the interruption is probably a net positive. But many times I have seen/caused someones "compulsive problem solver" trait being triggered and suddently you have five people googling for an answer and throwing around names of libraries that might be worth trying...

It requires discipline to say "sorry, can't help you" and to accept that response and go back to working on the problem on your own.

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I used to work at a location where a certain individual was way above everyone else in knowledge, so he would be the "go-to" person for almost any issue with certain systems and platforms. He was too nice of a guy to say "no". It severely impacted his work some days because individuals would go to him instead of spending five to ten minutes troubleshooting on their own. Eventually our supervisor moved him to another room because it was impacting his performance so much (sometimes an hour a day of questions). It might be easy to say "sorry, can't help you" on paper, but in practicality it's nearly impossible when someone is standing two feet away from you and you already have the repertoire of being "that helpful guy".

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