Always Google your problem first

If you have a problem that you don't know how to solve, or you need to do something you don't know how to do, the first thing you should always do is just google it.  There are web pages and/or discussions describing how to do or fix just about everything these days, and a large part of the time you can get specific instructions from experts just be googling whatever it is you want to do.

For example, this morning I wanted to put a list of file names from a directory into a document.  Instead of asking someone how to do it, or poking around and trying to figure out how to do it, I just googled "mac os x get copy list of file names to clipboard" and one of the top results was specific instructions on how to do just that.

Another example.  The other day my spouse bought some fresh corn, and we wondered if you could microwave it instead of boiling it.  We googled "microwave corn" and had specific instructions in seconds (it works great; I am never boiling another ear of corn).

This tactic works especially well for computer issues. If you get an error message, the first thing you should do is google it. The majority of the time you will have the solution in seconds.

You can stumble your way through a complex project that you have no idea how to do by using this tactic for each little step.  I taught myself how to write web applications in PHP-MySQL this way.

Many people don't know this trick, so once you know it you can impress your friends and family as an expert on just about everything by using this tactic to instantly finding solutions for their problems.