There's A Right Way To Ask Questions?
07 Sep 2022
Smart Questions? Huh?
Before reading the essay about How To Ask Questions the Smart Way by Eric Raymond, I didn’t know that there was a “right” and “wrong” way to ask questions. I did know there exists questions that aren’t the best such as “vague” questions that don’t really provide insight about what you’re asking for but this essay helped point out things that people do when asking questions that provide diminishing returns along with humiliation from your peers. The main idea that I got from reading the part of the essay about not smart questions is to always do your own research first before attempting to ask the question and to be as clear and concise as possible when asking your question. Chances are the issue that you are facing has been asked and maybe answered before in the past so doing your own research using google, reading a FAQ, reading the manual, asking a classmate or friend, or using other forum posts helps you and others from wasting time. If you do decide to ask your question, be clear and concise of what you want answered along with what you already tried and the outcomes of your attempts. People love to see that you’re trying to learn and that you’ve attempted it yourself before asking and mooching off of strangers’ answers/help. Other small caveats that help create a smart question is to write in clear, grammatically correct language and not to ask for answers rather ask for hints to the solution.
Example Of A Smart Question
Scouring the web, I was able to find a question on Stack Overflow that was written using the “smart” way as described in the article. In this post, the user shows two pieces of code for sorting an array. The user then states that the code runs 6x faster if the data is sorted prior to a piece of code in the program and even states both sort times of both pieces of code. The user even reproduced the experiment in a different compiler and showed that it yielded the same results and also stated why they thought the issue was occurring. This question was so well formatted that it gained a lot of attention making it one of the most searched/viewed questions on stack overflow. The top rated answer is very technical and goes into detail about what can be done to solve the problem and what the actual problem was and even a visualization of the issue at hand. Here is a link to the post
Not So Smart Question
Now with the best question being showcased, this was the best “worst” example that I could find of a question not being asked the “smart” way. Humorously to start things off, the user posted a picture of their code written in some type of paint program, not even a copy and pastable snippet. The user then goes on to state, “To be honest, I don’t really know what any of these error messages mean”. On the plus side the user stated what he/she tried to do and the outcomes but not in extreme detail. The result of this question was meme replies with other people replying with “Your < and >, ( and ), { and } don’t seem to match very well; Try drawing them better” and drawings of their solutions in microsoft paint. Here is a link to the post
All In All
Exploring two types of questions using the smart and not smart way of asking questions I can see why asking questions the smart way is so important for software engineers. Being able to communicate your ideas and problems properly leads to better productivity and collaboration amongst you and your peers. The saying you get what you put in resonates with me when taking a look at these two questions. The user who took the time and put in the effort to try and do their own research before asking received quality feedback and advice while on the other hand the user who did subpar research and formatted his post terribly received the same back, poor quality answers. From now on I will be smart about asking my questions and follow the steps prior before asking my question to ensure that I did everything I possibly could to attempt to solve the problem on my own.