14 ms·

How to Ask Questions the Smart Way (2014)

96 points by chippy 4y ago

ctur 4y ago
Being able to ask questions well, be it in public online or in the workplace, is a skill worth developing (as is answering such questions). I compiled a shorter and hopefully more actionable list of similar guidelines based on a few different jobs in the tech industry and public sources, including this one. https://github.com/chipturner/asking-questions https://github.com/chipturner/asking-questions
- mecsred 4y ago
  Thank you for making this, I think it's a good primer.
codetrotter 4y ago
It’s more easy to just state something you are unsure about as though it was a fact and then wait for someone knowledgeable to object. They always do!
- lliamander 4y ago
  It's half of the reason I post on the internet.
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  The Barrens Chat Law
Shared404 4y ago
I do like this document, but this is worth a read: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- lliamander 4y ago
  It's really not worth the read. The whole point of the rationalist movement what to develop better intellectual hygiene, which meant taking people at their word and arguing against their ideas in good faith (Scott Alexander being the best demonstration of this). To see essentially partisan political flame bait penned under the auspices of alleged rationality is pretty off-putting.
  - Kim_Bruning 4y ago
    As far as I know rationalwiki is more of a skeptics wiki (defined as being anti pseudoscience, cranks, etc.). The quality is variable. see: * https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page
  - ackfoobar 4y ago
    It's my impression that RationalWiki and rationalism are quite orthogonal. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WYzZ3bxctEJ2q6HFQ/what-are-your-thoughts-on-rational-wiki https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WYzZ3bxctEJ2q6HFQ/what-are-y... But I agree with your comment otherwise.
    - lliamander 4y ago
      Ah, that makes more sense. My thanks to you and Kim_Bruning for the clarification!
- justincredible 4y ago
  [dead]
smlacy 4y ago
What a pretentious bunch of gatekeeping nonsense. Clearly, ESR (and anyone following the tenets of documents like this) are not actually interested in teaching anyone anything. They have a truly transactional perspective on "Question Asking" in that some questions are "worthy of answering" and others aren't. People who "Take without giving back" (his words) are exactly those who you're teaching. They absorb knowledge directly from those providing the answers. Teaching is the act of understanding where your audience is in the learning process, and leading/guiding them through that journey in a kind and patient way. The truly ignorant don't know how to ask the question. Think of a child who's first learning computer programming. Think of an adult who's studying a foreign language for the first time. Think of the questions of a child who's never experienced snow. > What we are, unapologetically, is hostile to people who seem to be unwilling to think or to do their own homework before asking questions. People like that are time sinks — they take without giving back, and they waste time we could have spent on another question more interesting and another person more worthy of an answer. We call people like this “losers” (and for historical reasons we sometimes spell it “lusers”). And this is why "internet hostility" is a thing. Good job creating this horrible culture right from the start. Please don't follow the advice of this column. Be patient. Encourage anyone and everyone to ask questions, even if they're "duplicates" or "easy to answer". Use the Socratic Method (ask questions that lead to more questions). Actually teach people things.
- Kim_Bruning 4y ago
  The document is harsh, but not mean, and not wrong. If you've ever tried helping out large numbers of people online, you'll have encountered most -if not all- of the described situations yourself. ESR is definitely a bit of a personality though. Better versions of the document appreciated.
  - lliamander 4y ago
    I think we mostly agree, except that I'm not sure how it could be improved: it's clear, to the point, and has numerous concrete examples. Criticisms of tone are more subjective, but I don't think they hold up here either. It lacks the structural characteristics of a flame or rant, nor does it portray anyone in an uncharitable light: both the perspectives and needs of those asking and answering questions are presented fairly.
m1117 4y ago
[flagged]
rco8786 4y ago
This is a long article and the first bits comes off fairly condescending so I stopped reading…but one thing caught my eye: “If you are a programmer, try to find an answer by reading the source code” This is basically a superpower at any large tech co if only because few people do it, even though we’re literally all capable of it. When I inherit or start interfacing with a new service, the first thing I do is checkout the code and peruse through it. Even just 30-45 minutes, for an experienced engineer, is enough to get a feel for the layout of things. Then when you have a question about “How does X service handle Y scenario” you can just go read the code and know the answer exactly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the answer to a question and get something like “dang rco8786 how do you know so much about how everything works” and invariably my answer is just “I read the code”.
- Wowfunhappy 4y ago
  Maybe it's because I'm a less experienced programmer, but I find I have a lot of trouble understanding source code if I'm not trying to find or change something specific. I can't read it like a book, I have to experiment with it.
  - rco8786 4y ago
    I don’t typically read to understand anything in depth unless im doing something like that. But just poking around the folder structure, seeing what the api looks like, the background jobs (usually pretty descriptive in their names), database structure, etc gives you a good feel for high level functionality and then more importantly when you want to answer a more specific question you know right where to go look. Sometimes a question will come up during a meeting, nobody knows the answer, so I’ll just pull up the source and because it’s already handy and since I know the structure I can find the answer in a matter of seconds.
  - lliamander 4y ago
    It's definitely a skill that takes time to develop, but don't be discouraged! Even reading code in the way you are now is helping you develop this skill. Your ability to navigate a codebase, to able to see how its components relate to each other and to the effects the software has on the external world, is the perhaps the most valuable skill you can develop as a programmer. If you also have strong communication skills, you will go far.
meghan_rain 4y ago
[flagged]
cratermoon 4y ago
How To Answer Questions The Smart Way (2015): https://skippy.net/how-to-answer-questions/ https://skippy.net/how-to-answer-questions/
Grothendank 4y ago
[flagged]
- dang 4y ago
  Ok, but in that case please don't replicate the shittiness and bitterness here. We're trying for something else on this site. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Spasnof 4y ago
While this may be brutally honest. I find the SO version quite approachable and just generally good advice for newcomers. https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

96 points by chippy 4y ago

ctur 4y ago

Being able to ask questions well, be it in public online or in the workplace, is a skill worth developing (as is answering such questions). I compiled a shorter and hopefully more actionable list of similar guidelines based on a few different jobs in the tech industry and public sources, including this one. https://github.com/chipturner/asking-questions https://github.com/chipturner/asking-questions

mecsred 4y ago
Thank you for making this, I think it's a good primer.

codetrotter 4y ago

It’s more easy to just state something you are unsure about as though it was a fact and then wait for someone knowledgeable to object. They always do!

lliamander 4y ago
It's half of the reason I post on the internet.
squeaky-clean 4y ago
The Barrens Chat Law

Shared404 4y ago

I do like this document, but this is worth a read: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
lliamander 4y ago
It's really not worth the read. The whole point of the rationalist movement what to develop better intellectual hygiene, which meant taking people at their word and arguing against their ideas in good faith (Scott Alexander being the best demonstration of this). To see essentially partisan political flame bait penned under the auspices of alleged rationality is pretty off-putting.
- Kim_Bruning 4y ago
  As far as I know rationalwiki is more of a skeptics wiki (defined as being anti pseudoscience, cranks, etc.). The quality is variable. see: * https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page
- ackfoobar 4y ago
  It's my impression that RationalWiki and rationalism are quite orthogonal. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WYzZ3bxctEJ2q6HFQ/what-are-your-thoughts-on-rational-wiki https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WYzZ3bxctEJ2q6HFQ/what-are-y... But I agree with your comment otherwise.
  - lliamander 4y ago
    Ah, that makes more sense. My thanks to you and Kim_Bruning for the clarification!
justincredible 4y ago
[dead]

smlacy 4y ago

What a pretentious bunch of gatekeeping nonsense. Clearly, ESR (and anyone following the tenets of documents like this) are not actually interested in teaching anyone anything. They have a truly transactional perspective on "Question Asking" in that some questions are "worthy of answering" and others aren't. People who "Take without giving back" (his words) are exactly those who you're teaching. They absorb knowledge directly from those providing the answers. Teaching is the act of understanding where your audience is in the learning process, and leading/guiding them through that journey in a kind and patient way. The truly ignorant don't know how to ask the question. Think of a child who's first learning computer programming. Think of an adult who's studying a foreign language for the first time. Think of the questions of a child who's never experienced snow. > What we are, unapologetically, is hostile to people who seem to be unwilling to think or to do their own homework before asking questions. People like that are time sinks — they take without giving back, and they waste time we could have spent on another question more interesting and another person more worthy of an answer. We call people like this “losers” (and for historical reasons we sometimes spell it “lusers”). And this is why "internet hostility" is a thing. Good job creating this horrible culture right from the start. Please don't follow the advice of this column. Be patient. Encourage anyone and everyone to ask questions, even if they're "duplicates" or "easy to answer". Use the Socratic Method (ask questions that lead to more questions). Actually teach people things.

Kim_Bruning 4y ago
The document is harsh, but not mean, and not wrong. If you've ever tried helping out large numbers of people online, you'll have encountered most -if not all- of the described situations yourself. ESR is definitely a bit of a personality though. Better versions of the document appreciated.
- lliamander 4y ago
  I think we mostly agree, except that I'm not sure how it could be improved: it's clear, to the point, and has numerous concrete examples. Criticisms of tone are more subjective, but I don't think they hold up here either. It lacks the structural characteristics of a flame or rant, nor does it portray anyone in an uncharitable light: both the perspectives and needs of those asking and answering questions are presented fairly.

m1117 4y ago

[flagged]

rco8786 4y ago

This is a long article and the first bits comes off fairly condescending so I stopped reading…but one thing caught my eye: “If you are a programmer, try to find an answer by reading the source code” This is basically a superpower at any large tech co if only because few people do it, even though we’re literally all capable of it. When I inherit or start interfacing with a new service, the first thing I do is checkout the code and peruse through it. Even just 30-45 minutes, for an experienced engineer, is enough to get a feel for the layout of things. Then when you have a question about “How does X service handle Y scenario” you can just go read the code and know the answer exactly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the answer to a question and get something like “dang rco8786 how do you know so much about how everything works” and invariably my answer is just “I read the code”.

Wowfunhappy 4y ago
Maybe it's because I'm a less experienced programmer, but I find I have a lot of trouble understanding source code if I'm not trying to find or change something specific. I can't read it like a book, I have to experiment with it.
- rco8786 4y ago
  I don’t typically read to understand anything in depth unless im doing something like that. But just poking around the folder structure, seeing what the api looks like, the background jobs (usually pretty descriptive in their names), database structure, etc gives you a good feel for high level functionality and then more importantly when you want to answer a more specific question you know right where to go look. Sometimes a question will come up during a meeting, nobody knows the answer, so I’ll just pull up the source and because it’s already handy and since I know the structure I can find the answer in a matter of seconds.
- lliamander 4y ago
  It's definitely a skill that takes time to develop, but don't be discouraged! Even reading code in the way you are now is helping you develop this skill. Your ability to navigate a codebase, to able to see how its components relate to each other and to the effects the software has on the external world, is the perhaps the most valuable skill you can develop as a programmer. If you also have strong communication skills, you will go far.

meghan_rain 4y ago

[flagged]

cratermoon 4y ago

How To Answer Questions The Smart Way (2015): https://skippy.net/how-to-answer-questions/ https://skippy.net/how-to-answer-questions/

Grothendank 4y ago

[flagged]

dang 4y ago
Ok, but in that case please don't replicate the shittiness and bitterness here. We're trying for something else on this site. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Spasnof 4y ago

While this may be brutally honest. I find the SO version quite approachable and just generally good advice for newcomers. https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]