The 'Right' Way to Question
26 Jan 2023
In order to get a good answer one must first learn how to ask the right question. This is especially true in the field of computer science in which the quality of the answer a person receives is directly dependent on the effectiveness of the question they ask.
Not so Smart Questioning
Scrolling through StackOverflow I came across this particular post. The header “Counting Database Applications” only provides the topic of the inquiry and no information on the problem the inquirer is seeking help on. The body of the post proves to be no more informative as it is just a single sentence: “How can we find out that how many applications are there in a database?” Not only does the bad grammar severely undermine the content of the question, but the inquirer’s lack of context makes it confusing and hard for the reader to completely understand what the problem is. This confusion is clearly shown in the responses as both answerers start off their answer with some form of “I’m not sure what you’re asking, but…” then graciously proceed to give the best answer they can based on the limited information given to them. As best put by Osama Al-Maadeed in the comment section, “[the] question makes no sense.”
Smart Questioning
Through further search on StackOverflow I landed on this post. The header “docker - Error response from daemon: open \.\pipe\docker_engine_linux: The system cannot find the file specified” is precise and straight to the point – immediately highlighting the problem and identifying where it is occurring. This bluntness makes the header eye-catching and easy for readers casually scrolling through StackOverflow to immediately understand the basis of the problem highlighted in the post.
As suggested by Eric Raymond in “How to Ask Questions the Smart Way,” in the body of the post, the inquirer explicitly states the error they’ve received as well as the problem’s symptoms in chronological order starting from what they did (logon to their computer) and what happened (the hyper VM couldn’t run docker virtual machine). Their use of simple English and good grammar also makes it significantly easier to understand the problem and what they’re asking. Therefore, even if a reader has no idea what “docker” or “daemon” is, they would easily be able to grasp the problem and understand (to an extent) what happened and what the inquirer was asking for help on. Additionally, as shown in the answers to this post, the provided information makes it easy for people to identify whether they are having or have had the same problem and provide information from their own experience or solutions that worked for them.
Additional Thoughts
A person’s main goal as the inquirer should be to make it as easy on the reader as possible to read through and understand your question. That means no flowery sentences and no bad grammar. Conciseness is key. However, it’s also important to not make your inquiries too short. As shown in the example of a “Not so Smart” question above, doing so not only confuses the reader, but also drastically increases the possibility of receiving an unhelpful response. In all, effective questioning is a skill one must work to perfect, but ultimately proves very useful across a wide range of fields – not only computer science.