Well, how about a couple of stories related to newbies?
(1). A long while back, a friend of mine told me about an interesting situation. He said he had a couple of local kids come to him interested in going snake hunting, because they had never done it before and thought it would be cool. This friend of mine figured it would be OK and maybe fun introducing these new kids to the hobby, so he drove them to one of his favorite spots where he had found some things over the years. They got there and the kids just bolted before he could say much to them about where to look and what to look for. He got preoccupied with his own hunting, but pretty soon the kids were coming back to him showing him what they had found. Surprisingly enough, those kids were finding animals that he had NEVER found there, and never even knew they could be found there. What had happened was that these newbies didn't KNOW where snakes wouldn't be found at, so they looked in places he had never thought to look. And sure enough, they found stuff that was in habitats that he had completely overlooked because he KNEW nothing would be there. THEY didn't know any better than to NOT bother looking there for something.
(2) When I was working for the Florida legislature, a guy I worked with, but in a different department, who knew I bred snakes came to my office and told me he had found a little snake several weeks ago. He said he wasn't sure what it was, so he described it to me. Well, he had found a baby corn snake. He told me how he had bought a cage for it, and had it all set up and was doing pretty well for him. I asked him where he was getting his pinky mice from. He looked like I had suddenly started speaking in Russian. You know, "baby mice"? Still the puzzled look. Oh, so I guess you are feeding it lizards then? Still the look like he didn't know what I was talking about. Well, WHAT are you feeding your snake, I asked. He said, "Earthworms. Isn't that what they feed on?" I was flabbergasted. Never, EVER thought to try earthworms with baby corn snakes.....
Anyway, the point of this is, don't underestimate or rule out something a newbie says or does simply because they are a newbie. They may have a completely fresh perspective of something that us old hands have never thought of. And us being stuck in the rut of only doing what has been done in the past, we may be completely overlooking something because we can't see that other perspective. So give someone with a new idea a reason to express it without fear of derision and ridicule. There may be some new, really GOOD ideas out there that people may just be afraid of telling us about. In such a case, WE just might be losing out on something new to learn.
And just because someone does something different than you do doesn't necessarily mean it is wrong. It may be just as right as your method, work quite well, and only be DIFFERENT, not worse nor better.
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