learn-co-students / programming-mindset-learning-from-your-questions-dumbo-web-82619

Learning from Your Questions

Learning Goals

• Identify effective methods of formulating questions
• Identify community standards for writing help requests

Introduction

Before we get the right answer, we need to know how to ask the right question. Figuring out how to ask the right question is a process of clarifying exactly what we want the result to be as well as taking stock of all the information we currently have. The more thought we put into asking questions, the better chance we give ourselves of getting the right answer—either from others, or by ourselves.

Identify Effective Methods of Formulating Questions

Sometimes, it's clear to us what we don't know and what we need to ask for. But often it's not so clear. Often, we don't know what we don't know and that makes it difficult to formulate a question to ask about it. In these not-so-clear cases, we can start with a process of determining what we do know. Eventually, this process will lead us to the right question.

Here's some steps to take when you're coming up with questions:

1. Focus on small section of code. Don’t keep scanning several files for a bug. Reducing the amount of material to sort through will allow you to isolate the issues faster and easier.

2. State your inputs. Double-check what data is getting pulled into your program. Is your code reading the correct file? Were the values entered correctly? If an input is wrong, it could throw off all of your code.

3. State your outputs. Similarly, double-check what data is getting pushed out of your program. If you're not getting out what you want, you might be able to trace it backwards to the source of the problem.

4. State your expectation. In order to determine whether your outputs are right or wrong, you need to compare what you're getting to what you expected to get.

5. State your theory for what should have happened. You might have an idea what you wanted to get as an result, but how did you get that idea? Double-check your understanding of how the code is working. Did you miss anything that would explain a different result?

6. Check the docs to make sure your implementation works like you think it did. As you're exploring your theory, take a look at any relevant reference documentation. All developers have been in a position where they thought something worked a certain way, but in fact did not. Double-check all the available documentation for whichever tool or technique you're using so that you can eliminate that as a contributing factor to the current issue.

7. Test the implementation in IRB. There's no substitute for running bits of your code in a safe environment to make sure it functions how you intend it to function. IRB is here to help. You can always test out code there while not disturbing the rest of what you've written. Even senior developers often find themselves entering:

x = [1,2,3]
z = []
...

So that they can be sure they understand some method (in this case, probably an Enumerable or some aspect of an Array).

8. If necessary at this point, submit the question. Still have questions? Now you should at least have a clearer idea of what specifically you need to ask for. So now you can ask. Who do you ask? Friends, colleagues, teachers. Make use of the Flatiron "Ask a Question" button in Learn and someone will be glad to help you out. Or you can take your question to an online forum such as Stack Overflow.

Here's the secret about asking questions: when you follow a series of steps like these, you're running through all of the questions someone else might ask you when they're trying to gather enough information to solve your problem, and, often, this is enough to uncover the solution on your own. But even if it's not, you've done all the necessary prework for narrowing down what you need to ask someone else for help with, which means they will be able to help you more effectively, and get you back to coding faster.

Identify Community Standards for Writing Help Requests

When we developers come to a point in our programming where we need to ask for help, we follow the process above. If the reason still isn't forthcoming we have a perfectly-formulated question to send out into a professional coding community like Stack Overflow. Here's how to use those steps with approaching the community in mind.

• Avoid posting too much code. Professional programmers have very little time. If you haven't done any work to help yourself, they won't bother to help you either. Show only the buggy section of code. If you struggle to narrow down the bit that is causing you trouble, that tells you that you might need to ask a larger, more fundamental question. Or perhaps you should try breaking down the code a bit better before you ask your question.

• Give all available details: inputs, outputs, theories, what you've done so far. Someone reading your question might not have your programming language installed or they might be on a slow network. Make sure they have the facts handy so they can mentally "play" your code.

• Be polite. Phrases such as "I'm new to..." or "I can get this to work in (other language)" help your collaborator gauge their response. Always thank the person who provides the winning response and mark their response as "correct." Keep in mind that your questions will stay on the site long past your coding snag. Future employers can decide a lot about how you present yourself and what kind of person you are to work with from these questions. Leave your best impression, always.

• Uphold the Community Standards. It is entirely appropriate to ask colleagues or collaborators to follow this process when you are asked to help them as well. If someone asks you a question and it's clear they've not followed these steps, it's entirely appropriate to suggest these steps so that you can more clearly understand their problem. Your time, as a developer, is valuable. By insisting that others respect your time, you will respect it as well.

Additionally, many collaboration sites hold a Code of Conduct. Operate within in it. While many developers cover their insecurities by being snarky, misogynist, and generally nasty, Flatiron learners radiate positivity.

Conclusion

If we follow a set of effective methods for formulating questions, we are generally able to either come up with the answers on our own or present a question that is targeted, informed and most likely to produce the result we need.

Resources

• Stack Overflow: How to Ask