Have you ever heard that saying “There’s no such thing as a stupid question?”
Well, there are stupid questions. Not necessarily questions that shouldn’t be asked, but questions that waste people’s time, or questions that probably aren’t questions in the first place if you poke around a bit. Yes, questions should be asked if you want to understand something, but there is a certain way on how you should go about it.
This is especially true when it comes to programming.
The goal of asking questions is a method that can help a person figure out something. Some people may take advantage of this and use questions to solve their own answers, often relying on them whenever something doesn’t work. Even though someone asks questions, if they rely on answers being supplemented then they can never think on their own. Thus, it creates a lazy person. However, this also affects the people answering the question, because it causes them to use up their time to help people with questions, often solving the whole problem.
An example of this is here. The person asks a question where he just wants the answer. Sure this person has code that they may or may not have created on their own, but doesn’t show their thought process.
However, just because it is a bad way to ask a question, this can be adjusted to be a smarter question. Like if they told their thought process, or asked a specific question that could give them a hint.
Something like this.
After reading this article on how to ask smart questions. I agree with the writer, and after reevaluating myself, I feel embarrassed to say that I have a tendency to ask questions that are not smart. However, I feel that asking smart questions is not only great for software engineering, but applies to anything a person does. In the end, I feel that asking smart questions show that you put in the work and aren’t some lazy leech that sits around waiting for all their problems to be solved. It makes people grow as a person and as an intellectual, and shows that you are considerate of people’s time.