7 ms·

Please ask me any question, regardless of how dumb you think it will make you look, after you've spent at least 5 minutes trying to answer it yourself. Bonus P

Please ask me any question, regardless of how dumb you think it will make you look, after you've spent at least 5 minutes trying to answer it yourself. Bonus Points if you summarize your quick research efforts. Extra Bonus Points if this leads to more questions. (Caveat emptor: _many_ engineers are decidedly antisocial, but if you show that you did prior research before asking, you're showing to them that you value their time as much as your own, and there's a better chance that they will be receptive to collaboration.)

inconfident2021 5y ago
It's difficult for starting people to ask out of school because their curiosity has been butchered by ego-maniac professors. For every 1 good professor, there are 1000 ego maniacs (professor + their TAs).
sseagull 5y ago
Maybe? True beginners often lack the context to understand which of the multitude of answers the internet provides is the best for their situation. Or they think they understand the answer, but really don’t, and end up making a mess. Basically, true beginners do best with a mentor.
saiya-jin 5y ago
Bingo - just constantly asking relatively trivial beginner's questions will quickly make any busy senior lose patience. Key is to be somewhere in the middle - trying to understand, but needing that extra glue to make sense of the facts.
- PicassoCTs 5y ago
  Collect your questions, research them yourselves, come with the bundle.. when im obviously not concentrated or it really holds up your work.
  - afarrell 5y ago
    How does a junior engineer working remotely tell if you are obviously not concentrating?
    - brna 5y ago
      At the end or start of the work day works best for me. After lunch break or meetings is also great.
    - Dudeman112 5y ago
      By using async communication. Write down where they were, move on with something else until they get a reply.
ackfoobar 5y ago
I've read "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" by ESR when I was young. It had a rather big impact on me. Of course now I realize people who need the message won't read it.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
908B64B197 5y ago
> Bonus Points if you summarize your quick research efforts. Careful with that step: you might answer your own question.
- eropple 5y ago
  The best rubber duck debugging is when the rubber duck solves it before you hit enter.
jayd16 5y ago
The only stupid question is one where I can type it verbatim into Google and get the result for you. Even then, if you did that but want more context, that's not stupid. I'm still surprised how much I need to Google for others...
onion2k 5y ago
Very often you won't get that upfront research because juniors don't have the knowledge necessary to even start looking for themselves. Because you expect them to come to you with evidence before they ask you, your devs will just avoid asking you and spend hours wasting time instead. Any minimum requirements are a barrier. Barriers are bad for learning. You need to welcome questions even from people who have apparently done no research at all, or juniors will always worry that you'll accuse them of not doing the "necessary" work up front. If you're kind and approachable, and you don't tell people off for failing to meet your minimum requirements, you can guide them to finding it themselves.
- chris11 5y ago
  How would you suggest helping a dev ask better questions? Explicitly giving them guidelines seems aggressive. Though sometimes I have a hard time understanding the problem, or what was attempted.
- junon 5y ago
  > Very often you won't get that upfront research because juniors don't have the knowledge necessary to even start looking for themselves. Advice for junior devs: Asking "how do I even go about searching for this?" is also a perfect acceptable question. Another format: "how do YOU generally research things?"
  - avmich 5y ago
    For both of those questions peers answering them can choose.. to actually switch to answer some more simple questions - like, what to do in this specific case. They'll even ask for details - "how do I even go about searching for this?" - "the information you need is here", or "how do YOU generally research things?" - "what specifically you want to find?" People aren't perfect.
    - junon 5y ago
      > People aren't perfect. I think you misunderstood my intent. I was simply saying that sometimes a junior dev might not even know what question they're trying to ask, or how to go about researching a topic to grok it. Asking an experienced engineer how they would go about solving something is perfectly acceptable. That's all.
moffkalast 5y ago
This is a problem during lectures. If you ask immediately you may end up looking entirely stupid, but if you spend a few minutes thinking about it the topic already moves from it so you can no longer ask lol.
erikerikson 5y ago
s/antisocial/asocial/
devwastaken 5y ago
What is the best method for students to get a summer internship? What kind of things does hiring want to see from a student? What format of resumes are the most appealing? How do you negotiate costs and ensure the student can actually afford to live that work? I've asked a number of people, including uni admins, and none of them are based on words from the people whom actually hire. Especially in software where resumes and hiring are worlds apart from accounting.
- devwastaken 5y ago
  I realize this was not a call for questions. Can't delete it lol.
duxup 5y ago
I was a non coding tech support nobody at one point in my career. After a while I started to have specific tickets assigned to me from other techs. And then emails with people of the chain asking me to take a ticket. Later I realized was that the engineering team several layers separated from me really liked my documentation and working with me. I wrote accurate summaries. I was honest about what I did and didn't know. I remembered what they told me to ask customers from other tickets. The engineering team loved it. The honest part was a big deal. In a place where folks tried to show how smart they were people were reluctant to admit they didn't know something or didn't ask the customer, it caused all sorts of issues that engineering hated.
stavros 5y ago
To second this, please ask me any question but help me understand the context first. I've written up a short guide on that: https://www.stavros.io/posts/how-to-ask-for-help/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/how-to-ask-for-help/ Giving the other person all the relevant details helps you both immensely.
Mandatum 5y ago
http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html Mandatory reading for all new juniors. Better yet, in teams that rely on heavy domain knowledge sharing and complex problems or designs, annual review by everyone.

inconfident2021 5y ago

It's difficult for starting people to ask out of school because their curiosity has been butchered by ego-maniac professors. For every 1 good professor, there are 1000 ego maniacs (professor + their TAs).

sseagull 5y ago

Maybe? True beginners often lack the context to understand which of the multitude of answers the internet provides is the best for their situation. Or they think they understand the answer, but really don’t, and end up making a mess. Basically, true beginners do best with a mentor.

saiya-jin 5y ago

Bingo - just constantly asking relatively trivial beginner's questions will quickly make any busy senior lose patience. Key is to be somewhere in the middle - trying to understand, but needing that extra glue to make sense of the facts.

PicassoCTs 5y ago
Collect your questions, research them yourselves, come with the bundle.. when im obviously not concentrated or it really holds up your work.
- afarrell 5y ago
  How does a junior engineer working remotely tell if you are obviously not concentrating?
  - brna 5y ago
    At the end or start of the work day works best for me. After lunch break or meetings is also great.
  - Dudeman112 5y ago
    By using async communication. Write down where they were, move on with something else until they get a reply.

ackfoobar 5y ago

I've read "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" by ESR when I was young. It had a rather big impact on me. Of course now I realize people who need the message won't read it.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

908B64B197 5y ago

> Bonus Points if you summarize your quick research efforts. Careful with that step: you might answer your own question.

eropple 5y ago
The best rubber duck debugging is when the rubber duck solves it before you hit enter.

jayd16 5y ago

The only stupid question is one where I can type it verbatim into Google and get the result for you. Even then, if you did that but want more context, that's not stupid. I'm still surprised how much I need to Google for others...

onion2k 5y ago

Very often you won't get that upfront research because juniors don't have the knowledge necessary to even start looking for themselves. Because you expect them to come to you with evidence before they ask you, your devs will just avoid asking you and spend hours wasting time instead. Any minimum requirements are a barrier. Barriers are bad for learning. You need to welcome questions even from people who have apparently done no research at all, or juniors will always worry that you'll accuse them of not doing the "necessary" work up front. If you're kind and approachable, and you don't tell people off for failing to meet your minimum requirements, you can guide them to finding it themselves.

chris11 5y ago
How would you suggest helping a dev ask better questions? Explicitly giving them guidelines seems aggressive. Though sometimes I have a hard time understanding the problem, or what was attempted.
junon 5y ago
> Very often you won't get that upfront research because juniors don't have the knowledge necessary to even start looking for themselves. Advice for junior devs: Asking "how do I even go about searching for this?" is also a perfect acceptable question. Another format: "how do YOU generally research things?"
- avmich 5y ago
  For both of those questions peers answering them can choose.. to actually switch to answer some more simple questions - like, what to do in this specific case. They'll even ask for details - "how do I even go about searching for this?" - "the information you need is here", or "how do YOU generally research things?" - "what specifically you want to find?" People aren't perfect.
  - junon 5y ago
    > People aren't perfect. I think you misunderstood my intent. I was simply saying that sometimes a junior dev might not even know what question they're trying to ask, or how to go about researching a topic to grok it. Asking an experienced engineer how they would go about solving something is perfectly acceptable. That's all.

moffkalast 5y ago

This is a problem during lectures. If you ask immediately you may end up looking entirely stupid, but if you spend a few minutes thinking about it the topic already moves from it so you can no longer ask lol.

erikerikson 5y ago

s/antisocial/asocial/

devwastaken 5y ago

What is the best method for students to get a summer internship? What kind of things does hiring want to see from a student? What format of resumes are the most appealing? How do you negotiate costs and ensure the student can actually afford to live that work? I've asked a number of people, including uni admins, and none of them are based on words from the people whom actually hire. Especially in software where resumes and hiring are worlds apart from accounting.

devwastaken 5y ago
I realize this was not a call for questions. Can't delete it lol.

duxup 5y ago

I was a non coding tech support nobody at one point in my career. After a while I started to have specific tickets assigned to me from other techs. And then emails with people of the chain asking me to take a ticket. Later I realized was that the engineering team several layers separated from me really liked my documentation and working with me. I wrote accurate summaries. I was honest about what I did and didn't know. I remembered what they told me to ask customers from other tickets. The engineering team loved it. The honest part was a big deal. In a place where folks tried to show how smart they were people were reluctant to admit they didn't know something or didn't ask the customer, it caused all sorts of issues that engineering hated.

stavros 5y ago

To second this, please ask me any question but help me understand the context first. I've written up a short guide on that: https://www.stavros.io/posts/how-to-ask-for-help/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/how-to-ask-for-help/ Giving the other person all the relevant details helps you both immensely.

Mandatum 5y ago

http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html Mandatory reading for all new juniors. Better yet, in teams that rely on heavy domain knowledge sharing and complex problems or designs, annual review by everyone.