Asking Questions¶

Question mark logo

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Its only a silly question if its not asked

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An example would be good right now - when the challenge or issue is not clear or hard to describe

Asking clear questions allows people to provide relevant opinions and answers quickly.

Virtuous Cycle: Practice asking clear questions grows confidence and speed in asking clear questions

Crafting questions saves time

Investing a little time to craft a clear question, ideally with relevant examples, will save a lot of time discussing the appropriate answer.

A shared repository that replicates an issue as simply as possible aids project maintainers quickly understand and adress issues.

The Question cycle¶

Write > Read > Refactor

Write - Describing the question well often leads to solving the challenge yourself

Read: - Do you understand the question when you read it back to yourself

Refactor: - Can the question be made even clearer

include background, e.g. what is the situation driving the need for the question
a clear example can be worth many additional words

I don't have time, I just need a quick answer

are you moving too fast?
for successive occurrences, are you masking a bigger challenge or gap in knowledge
effective engineering is a marathon (or a hike) rather than a sprint

I should know the answer to x:

why should you know? Are you sure other people do not have this or similar gaps in their knowledge
knowledge is leared and retained over time and also fades over time when not used
Griffin has many unique concepts and designs, with a significantly large and evolving code base

Practice: - asking questions well quickly builds up the skill of asking questions well

Claude: - help writing clearer questions - can provide good feedback on more common challenges and help clarify questions