A question MacGyver might ask?
25 Jan 2018Let’s be honest here, the article “How to ask questions the smart way” by Eric Steven Raymond is a great article that provides guidelines to asking “smart questions,” but it is very long. There are three main steps to help you make a “regular” question into a “smart question.” First, we must make sure that your questions is unique. There are a million other programmers who may have asked for help with a similar problem. If you are unable to find the answers to your problem, choose the correct forum/place to ask the question. These forums/places include stackoverflow, classmates, and maybe even the professor. Now that you have chosen the correct forum, we must make sure that your question is precise and informative. Your question should include background information of the problem which describe the problem, the research done, and the steps you have done in attempt to solve the problem.
Here is a very important question Joey Tribbiani would ask if he has just started learning JavaScript: “How to print to console using javascript?” Joey gave background information of the problem which includes: the description of the problem, screenshot of his code, and research done in attempt to solve the problem. A quick and simple google search of the problem will lead you to a similar question that was answered eight years before Joey’s post. What makes this question “stupid” is that Joey spent more time asking the question on stackoverflow rather than further researching the problem. If Joey spent more time researching, he would not have to wait for someone to answer his question.
On the other hand, here is an example of a question MacGyver might ask. MacGyver’s question is a perfect example of a “smart question.” His question was precise and informative, gave background information, and listed the steps done in attempt to solve problem. His smart questions has been viewed over one million times and has more than twenty thousand upvotes. A smart question will not only help you, but it will help others.