Reflect on smart questions
08 Sep 2016
In the essay written by Eric Raymond, ‘How to ask questions the smart way’, it gives the wisdoms to how to ask question smartly in the area of computer related technologies. The targets and places for asking questions are clear, technical people who are filled with technical information and logic in their fields and website like Stack Overflow, Server Fault, Super User, and all kinds of forums for open sources and programming. And these people and places will be the place for software engineers to seek and get the answer and I think through appropriate asking will lead them to become smart software engineers including myself. Then, what are smart questions and what are not?
Eric Raymond’s article talks about various kinds of elements about smart asking and the opposite too. Among many, the principle that drew my attention the most was “Be precise and information about your problem.” To find questions that are considered as “smart” or “not smart,” I have searched a website called “Stack Overflow” and I what I have found was there were questions only asking for answers, homework helps, or wanting the technical people to do everything for them. Despite the fact that the quality of the questions were considered as “not smart”, still people were kind enough to provide answers but at the same time there were also answers or comments that are saying, “search the web,” “don’t expect us to do your homework,” and many other answers.
On the other hand, when I looked up for “smart” questions, the questioners were precise about issues that they were having and tried to provide information as many as they could. As the result of the sincerities of the questioners, replies and answers were very descriptive, analytic, and sincere too.
Through the essay, “How to ask questions the smart way,” and experiences to search the examples of “smart” and “not smart” questions, I have learned that questioning can be one of the elements that smart software engineers could have. Asking smart question came to me as like this, “it is the way to form habit of not only asking to others but asking yourself with clear purpose with precision.” So, I believe that asking smartly will contribute to become smart software engineer.