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I'm particularly infamous among my peers for asking questions, and most of the time I'm not asking on my own behalf. Asking a question because you don't underst

by deadowl 11y ago

I'm particularly infamous among my peers for asking questions, and most of the time I'm not asking on my own behalf. Asking a question because you don't understand is what you can do for yourself. Asking a question because you don't expect others to understand is something more. This pretty much applies to all disciplines, particularly when a subgroup of people are more likely to feel intimidated by the learning environment.

matt_wulfeck 11y ago
That sounds dangerously close to "asking a question because you want to look smart" I like people like you in principle, but not in meetings.
- tdfx 11y ago
  I can't speak for OP but I would say asking somewhat obvious questions and making peoples' mental gears go through the effort of thinking things through has been beneficial for me. There is a guy on our team, possibly the smartest one, who constantly asks what could initially be construed as "dumb questions", only to later uncover some flaw in our reasoning or potential pitfall we hadn't thought of. I've come to deeply appreciate his dumb questions.
  - csense 11y ago
    It's the same principle as rubber duck debugging: It's harder to take shortcuts in your reasoning when you're trying to explain something.
  - simoncion 11y ago
    Right, but examining the fundamental assumptions of a plan is -subtly- different than asking a question (whose answer you already know) because you expect that other people want the answer to the question but are too intimidated or whatever to ask. :)
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  ...or at conferences. I can't find the flowchart I've seen before but it's definitely a problem at linux.conf.au (although better moderated this year!)
- bbarn 11y ago
  I've often done this in situations where we're doing a lunch and learn, or another dev is demoing something to the team, etc.. Sometimes it's to make the presenter look smart, not yourself. Sometimes it's to know if next time you have a question about [product being explained that you know a little about] if the presenter is the person to ask, or the person to ask if you want to figure it out with.

by deadowl 11y ago

matt_wulfeck 11y ago

That sounds dangerously close to "asking a question because you want to look smart" I like people like you in principle, but not in meetings.

tdfx 11y ago
I can't speak for OP but I would say asking somewhat obvious questions and making peoples' mental gears go through the effort of thinking things through has been beneficial for me. There is a guy on our team, possibly the smartest one, who constantly asks what could initially be construed as "dumb questions", only to later uncover some flaw in our reasoning or potential pitfall we hadn't thought of. I've come to deeply appreciate his dumb questions.
- csense 11y ago
  It's the same principle as rubber duck debugging: It's harder to take shortcuts in your reasoning when you're trying to explain something.
- simoncion 11y ago
  Right, but examining the fundamental assumptions of a plan is -subtly- different than asking a question (whose answer you already know) because you expect that other people want the answer to the question but are too intimidated or whatever to ask. :)
voltagex_ 11y ago
...or at conferences. I can't find the flowchart I've seen before but it's definitely a problem at linux.conf.au (although better moderated this year!)
bbarn 11y ago
I've often done this in situations where we're doing a lunch and learn, or another dev is demoing something to the team, etc.. Sometimes it's to make the presenter look smart, not yourself. Sometimes it's to know if next time you have a question about [product being explained that you know a little about] if the presenter is the person to ask, or the person to ask if you want to figure it out with.