A lot of stuck time is spent not being stuck at all, but being unwilling to ask.

The page won't do what it's supposed to do.

The tracking isn't showing what it should.

Something in the setup is wrong and it's not clear what.

So an evening goes into it.

Then another.

Searching, reading, trying things.

Eventually it gets fixed, or doesn't, and a week has passed on something that a person who'd seen it before could have answered in two minutes.

Nobody enjoys asking.

It feels like admitting to not knowing, and in the early days there's a sense that everyone else has already figured this out.

They haven't, mostly.

And the ones who have generally don't mind being asked.

A specific question about a specific problem is easy to answer, and most people are glad to be useful.

The rule that seems to work: try for a set amount of time, properly, on your own.

Half an hour, an hour, whatever seems fair for the size of the problem.

Make a genuine attempt, so the question when it comes is a good one: here's what I'm trying to do, here's what I tried, here's what happened.

Then ask.

Don't push into a second evening out of pride.

That's also one of the reasons a community matters.

If you're unsure about something, there's a good chance you're not the only one.

You might just be the one with enough courage to ask for help.

And when you ask the question in a community, the answer doesn't necessarily help just you.

Someone else might have been sitting there with the exact same problem, waiting for somebody to ask.

Time is the one thing in this that you can't get back.

Spending a week trying to protect your ego when a two-minute question could move you forward is a bad trade.

Ask sooner. Somebody else might be glad you did.