Asking The Right Questions
28 Jan 2021
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
To get smart answers, you first need to know how to properly ask smart questions. Before reading How To Ask Questions The Smart Way by Eric Steven Raymond and Rick Moen, I didn’t know very much about the interaction in the open-source community. This article illustrated how to properly interact online so you can effectively produce answers for yourself and avoid wasting other’s time. (click here to visit this article)
My Main Takeaways
One main takeaway that I got from this article, spoke on what to do before asking a question. Taking a moment to look for yourself is just a courteous thing to do. I’m not going to pretend as if I’ve never done this before myself. I have jumped straight into asking a teacher or TA when I don’t know something, but looking back now, I’m sure all it would’ve taken is a search of the web, reading the manual, or checking with a friend for most questions. By doing this first, you put yourself in the best position to solve your problem. And if nothing comes of it? Well, at least it shows you put forth some effort, hopefully motivating others to take out their time to help you.
Another great idea that I’ve learned from How To Ask Questions The Smart Way, is how to be precise in asking a question. This starts with where you decide to post your question online. For example, you want to post it in a relevant forum so that it’s on topic. Being precise also means knowing how to describe your issue so that another person can help. For instance, describing the environment the problem occurs in is one way, the research you’ve already done, or any other possible relevant changes you’ve made are just a few ways mentioned to get the response you want.
Question Examples
Good Question
After looking online at StackOverflow, a professional online question-and-answer site for programmers, one example that I found was a great question. Here, this person is asking why processing a sorted array fast than processing an unsorted array? They did a great job describing exactly what their question was about, gave lots of example code, and also tried working in another language to find out more about their question. One reason why this is a good example is that they worked to find their own explanation first, showing initiative to solve their problem. This is why they were able to get good answers from people other people in the end. (click here to visit this question)
Bad Question
A final example I’ve found on StackOverflow shows what you shouldn’t do when asking a question. Here this person asked “When using the SAVEPOINT and ROLLBACK, what will be the output of this?” (StackOverflow). The main problem with this question is the lack of information provided, as all this person has given, other than the question is code with nothing to explain what is happening. Not only does this mean their answers will be bad, but it also just makes it so no one wants to respond to you. (click here to visit this question)
Overall Thoughts
In conclusion, learning to ask questions the smart way will greatly benefit not only my programming but can easily be taken into everything you do. Don’t just blindly ask and hope for good responses, actually learn about what you’re doing and you’ll gain more knowledge because you’re putting yourself in the right position to get it.