Does it ever make sense to benefit from somebody else’s pain?

Often. Let me give you an example that has been one of my favorites ever since ten minutes ago.

I received in the mail today a Transcend 8 GB SDHC flash thingamajiggie that I bought in anticipation of eventually owning an ASUS eee mini-laptop, a cheap yet powerful gizmo that is all the rage right now among persons who want a lot for a little vis-a-vis electronic portability. But my Dell Vostro 1000 did not recognize the SDHC card. Of course I’d like both the Vostro and the eee I’m eventually going to own to recognize the card so that I can use it to flip stuff from the Vostro to the eee. Now, the main point of the SDHC is to expand the eee’s flash-drive memory, and of course it would be possible to use a different kind of flash card to transfer files between the two machines, using the USB ports. But it certainly would also be convenient for the SDHC card to work on both machines.

As I say, though, the Vostro 1000 refused to recognize the SDHC card. Was completely inert. As if the SDHC card were not even in the slot.

Internet. Google. I found a post by a guy who’d had the same problem, relating a long horror story about all the trials and tribulations he suffered while trying to find a driver for his Vostro 1000 that would recognize the SDHC card. At the end of the post he supplied a link to the required driver. I downloaded the file, unzipped it, ran the executable, rebooted the machine, and voila! my laptop now recognizes the card.

This lazy short cut of learning from somebody else’s sweat and tears without actually suffering all the same sweat and tears oneself works for many other things too, which is why it’s such a good idea to have division of labor, history, etc.