Learning to recognize and use the resources available to us, takes practice. Our first approach depending on our training or lack of it, may be to ask whoever's nearest. While this may be expeditious from our standpoint, it will be disruptive to the life or work pattern of our unfortunate neighbor and it perpetuates our avoidance of something called self-reliant resourcefulness.

Now, while no one should attempt to work in a vacuum and construct all their knowledge from first principles, there are approaches we can take to seek out answers to the problems which plague us, on our own steam.

Learning this skill or habit is useful and will increase our stock value as problem solvers, troubleshooters, programmers.

A simple hierarchy of approach like the following is useful: