As an adult: it's not that I'm afraid of appearing incompetent in front of peers. I don't care about that. I just know that my peers are also having their own troubles and I don't want to add my trouble to theirs.
When I am truly stuck on something and can't guess what the problem is, then yes I will ask for help. I've found that probably 60% of the time (guesstimate), my peers would guess the same things that I already tried, tested, and failed. In doing so, they've duplicated the time spent trying to solve the problem. Maybe 20% of the time, while doing so, they might spot something that I missed. Maybe another 10% of the time, they'll think of something I hadn't. And the last 10%? Well, that just means it's time to refactor the problem set to avoid what can't be solved.
That of course changes if I enter a new problem domain. At that point, I most certainly ask peers for documentation and examples. If I hit a snag then I ask what I did wrong. Most often the cause ends up being inaccurate documentation.
When I am truly stuck on something and can't guess what the problem is, then yes I will ask for help. I've found that probably 60% of the time (guesstimate), my peers would guess the same things that I already tried, tested, and failed. In doing so, they've duplicated the time spent trying to solve the problem. Maybe 20% of the time, while doing so, they might spot something that I missed. Maybe another 10% of the time, they'll think of something I hadn't. And the last 10%? Well, that just means it's time to refactor the problem set to avoid what can't be solved.
That of course changes if I enter a new problem domain. At that point, I most certainly ask peers for documentation and examples. If I hit a snag then I ask what I did wrong. Most often the cause ends up being inaccurate documentation.