What the hell happened to the time when being ignorant was a cause for embarressment? Since when did being an idiot become something to be proud of? Put in a similar situation as your co-worker, I'd quietly sneak away and try and learn everything about hashes before anyone noticed my lack of knowledge. If I couldn't pull that off, I'd ask for help.

How did a community with a well deserved reputation for arrogance allow incompetent colleagues to drag us down to their dismal level?

Forget auto analogies, your co-workers should currently be explaining why they are employed as 'programmers' and not, say, 'street sweepers'. That job would seem to be a better fit for your co-workers, since street sweepers also have no idea about HoHs but a long history of spraying crap over anyone nearby.

Woo, that felt good.

In reality, a good way around might be to hold some training sessions so that people could come up to speed with you.

____________________
Jeremy
I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.