Keep Calm and Ask Questions
30 Jan 2020
Ask Questions
Quite often, there are instructors who welcome questions, particularly for courses which are difficult to grasps. To acknowledge that the material is not easy to comphrend, they open discussions on the topic with:
“There are no dumb questions, don’t be afraid to ask. You’ll find that not only yourself but also your classmates with benefit from your questions.”
So? Is there really no such thing as dumb questions? And if they do exist, by asking them, I could be helping my community? I have been wondering about this question too throughout my academmic career. I am not one to ask questions in a classroom that I am uncomfortable and unfamiliar in. This puts a restriction on my potential to get answers when a question pops into my head when I stumble upon information I can process quickly enough. I don’t think there are dumb questions, just questions that are being asked unnecessarily, as the question of itself is not dumb. How could an inquiry have a level of intelligence? However, if we were following the assumption of the existence of dumb questions, there has to be smart questions too then.
Smart Questions
According to Eric Raymond essay on “How To Ask Questions The Smart Way”, it appears as though dumb questions may be the bane to his existence. Writing that inquiring with questions that do not meet his standards, you are merely wasting his time. Imagine that! On an open source community, where you can select what you see and don’t see, by posting your inquries, you may be in the presence of someone who on the prowl to answer smart questions who stumbles upon your dumb question. As claimed by Eric Raymond, a supposed dumb question may be like this inquiry. The inquirer had asked for information pertaining to segmentation faults. Since you can simply just google the concept of segmentation fault to get your answer, instead of wasting developers time to answer it. Which opens a question in my head, so what if you can google it, you could google it, and if you don’t get what you read? Then what? What is the harm in asking dumb questions? Perhaps asking dumb questions allows dumb answers, such that dumb answers does not mean the answer does not resolve the inquiry but that the dumb answer is just a simplified answer or a lengthy and thorough answer. Just like how a dumb question could merely be a simplified, easy to understand version of a question. The segmentation fault inquiry, which could be seen as a dumb question to Eric Raymond, had a response which provided a short concise and understandable explanation with the addition of examples of what could lead to segmentation faults. Now, doesn’t that help the community? If others have the same question, now there is an adequate answer for it, they just need to google it.
A smart question by Eric Raymond standards, would be this inquiry such that the inquirer had inquire about “passing by reference” versus “passing by value” in regards to the Java language. The inquirer provided that they had researched and linked to an explanation they found but in no avail of understanding the distinction between the two, inquiring for a different explanation. The question had a response which provided snipplets of codes which showcased the concept.
Perhaps despite the tone and diction of Eric Raymond’s essay, he does means well. Mayhaps, his point was that before you ask a question, be thorough and concise on what it is you are asking for, as asking a broad question may not bring you the answer you expected or needed. Hopefully he had the point of view of inquirers in mind when he wrote his essay, ie: perhaps they are asking dumb questions because they do not have as an extensive knowledge to be able to ask concise smart questions. But his essay on asking questions does provide a good point. When you have a question to ask think about how to effectively and efficiently ask to get an answer which will resolve your question.
Start Questioning
I think it is fine to ask dumb questions, there is no harm in doing so; perhaps you may not get the answer you want, but it is better to start a discourse than being stumped. For sure it is hard to know what you are confused or uncertain about. By asking broad questions can lead to discussions which can direct you towards what you know and don’t know. This way, it will not only ensure that you can cover and go over what you do understand but also uncover what you don’t and thus allows more learning oppurtunites. But it is also beneficial to formulate and be concise when asking inquiries on an open source community. As my algorithms professor like to say:
“Don’t be shy.” So?
