I wrote a bit about this a while back and I largely agree and think she’s right: https://zalberico.com/essay/2017/02/21/asking-questions.html https://zalberico.

I wrote a bit about this a while back and I largely agree and think she’s right: https://zalberico.com/essay/2017/02/21/asking-questions.html https://zalberico.com/essay/2017/02/21/asking-questions.html There’s a lot of nuance to this I think is worth going into. How to do this well is both how to ask questions as a new engineer and how to make junior engineers feel comfortable doing so. People are often afraid to ask because they’re afraid to look stupid (or worse, afraid they are stupid/can’t do it, etc.) This is a mistake for a lot of reasons, the smartest people I know ask more, say when they don’t know or understand something and as a result learn faster. A good lead will also direct when they should spend some time figuring it out or where they should look to learn more. I think it’s good to encourage people to ask early and often especially when starting out. It’s also good to reinforce this by example (asking questions yourself as a senior engineer when you don’t know something). The worst thing someone can do in response to a newbie’s question is feign surprise, “you don’t know what X is?!” - whenever I see that I shut it down.