The Smart Way and The Not So Smart Way
24 Jan 2019
How people ask questions and why
From a computer engineering perspective, coding in general can be hard. The difficulty can differ among many others in different ways. And because of that difficulty these people, especially the fresh coding starters, tend to ask questions too soon and seem like they’re ready to give up; although there are others who actually spend the time to work on coding problems but like I mentioned there are varying situations. Whatever the situation may be, how people ask the question is the main topic at hand. When people ask for help on a specific situation, other people that can provide that assistance sometimes follow along the lines of “depending on how you ask the question I will give you the answer accordingly based on my current knowledge”. Considering this there have been situations of miscommunication between others along with misunderstandings that can lead to dangerous situations that may insult or demean different parties involved with these problems. Sometimes the personality of some specific people may be an issue to deal with between the two parties, one of which is asking the question and the other that is willing to provide the assistance. Which considers the idea of how one should go about asking a question in a “smart way” that can benefit others without having to cause issues in providing assistance and solutions.
What does it mean to ask in a “smart way” and a “not so smart way”?
Asking questions are definitely a good thing because it may mean that the people asking these questions are interested in that specific topic. Although, it can also mean another thing where they just simply want to get that problem out of the way and be done with it without providing any effort at all in finding a solution themselves. Asking questions in a “smart way” can be a subjective topic to think about. Although, there are some specific things to look at when wanting to ask a question, even when it comes to asking for help on specific work and such. Answers and solutions to problems do not simply just fall on one’s lap; a solution cannot be given out so willingly just because someone asked “hey how do I do this specific problem?”. There are many ways that could affect what kind of response you may get when asking others, especially on social media websites or websites like StackOverflow; this topic of asking questions in a “smart way” doesn’t necessarily have to apply to only coding either, considering it may help with various other situations as well. As mentioned there are many factors that could affect how you can get a response and what type of response you will likely get. The factors that affect this can include grammar, methods of contact, how you word your questions, proof of effort, and so on; this is basically what Eric Steven Raymond has mentioned in his essay regarding this specific topic of how one should ask questions in general, especially when it comes to coding, along with how to answer them as well.
Grammar, wording, formatting, and such can affect how you ask and answer questions. Along with showing the effort that the work has been at least attempted multiple times. When asking questions, either in person or through forums and such, being presentable and willing to learn the material can definitely show others that you’d want to learn and you can at least provide the effort to. People that do this tend to be provided the help they ask for. This example could potentially be a “smart way” to ask a question. Although the question that is shown is simple, it is also presentable in a way that would show that this person is willing to learn through others while not expecting all the answers to fall on their laps. The question shown just asks for guidelines and differences between the two cases shown in this example. This was more terminology based, which in turn might help to solve some larger problem they might have with a large block of code involving this issue. Regardless of the reason behind asking this question, it does seem to fit the guidelines of asking questions in a “smart way”.
On the other hand, a “not so smart way” of asking a question would probably be this example shown here. This quesiton refers to how this person wants to convert the ‘data row value’ to a string as shown in the link provided. The problem this person wants to solve is displayed in a simple way, yet how they asked the question is the issue. No amount or not enough of effort was shown to even attempt to solve this issue. It just shows a problem and asks for an answer in return; although there were people nice enough to answer this solution there were others that direct this person to search for specific terms and functions that they could possibly use to help them with their problem.
Why is the “smart way” important for software engineers?
The “smart way” of asking a question shows importance for software engineers because there will always be a need for another person to help with specific issues. One cannot simply tackle obstacles ahead by themselves; although if they do manage to get that far in coding life then that is a different story. How one asks questions can affect how they’ll work in a workplace with multiple people and how they will do in the future in their jobs and other situations; it can show how dependent they are in others along with how they can present themselves towards others when they encounter issues. Yes, working with others will be a thing to looking forward to in the future especially when it comes to coding and such. But, it shouldn’t mean that people should constantly depend on others.
As mentioned before, grammar, amount of effort, methods of contact, how questions are worded, and so on do affect how one person can receive help from another when it comes to asking a question. Researching the topic while providing effort in attempt to solving it does help before asking the right questions. Learning how to ask questions in a “smart way” can prevent people from continuously making the same mistakes that prevented them from learning. Although Eric Steven Raymond’s essay bluntly explains the issue of how people ask questions and expects an immediate answer without learning the tips and tricks to solving it, he does have a point considering that it seems to occur more than often when searching through forums like StackOverflow.