Please ask me any question, regardless of how dumb you think it will make you look, after you've spent at least 5 minutes trying to answer it yourself.
Bonus Points if you summarize your quick research efforts.
Extra Bonus Points if this leads to more questions.
(Caveat emptor: _many_ engineers are decidedly antisocial, but if you show that you did prior research before asking, you're showing to them that you value their time as much as your own, and there's a better chance that they will be receptive to collaboration.)
Bingo - just constantly asking relatively trivial beginner's questions will quickly make any busy senior lose patience. Key is to be somewhere in the middle - trying to understand, but needing that extra glue to make sense of the facts.
Very often you won't get that upfront research because juniors don't have the knowledge necessary to even start looking for themselves. Because you expect them to come to you with evidence before they ask you, your devs will just avoid asking you and spend hours wasting time instead. Any minimum requirements are a barrier. Barriers are bad for learning.
You need to welcome questions even from people who have apparently done no research at all, or juniors will always worry that you'll accuse them of not doing the "necessary" work up front. If you're kind and approachable, and you don't tell people off for failing to meet your minimum requirements, you can guide them to finding it themselves.
To be clear, I don't believe I've ever said these "rules" aloud.
When someone comes to me for help, the first step is for them to explain the problem. The next step is for them to discuss what solutions they're considering. If they're at a loss, I open a browser window and ask them what they think a good query would look like, and pattern behavior that helps them in the future, and we work off of that for a bit before I may suggest actual implementation strategies, and walk through pros and cons of each approach.
> Very often you won't get that upfront research because juniors don't have the knowledge necessary to even start looking for themselves.
Advice for junior devs: Asking "how do I even go about searching for this?" is also a perfect acceptable question. Another format: "how do YOU generally research things?"
For both of those questions peers answering them can choose.. to actually switch to answer some more simple questions - like, what to do in this specific case. They'll even ask for details - "how do I even go about searching for this?" - "the information you need is here", or "how do YOU generally research things?" - "what specifically you want to find?"
I think you misunderstood my intent. I was simply saying that sometimes a junior dev might not even know what question they're trying to ask, or how to go about researching a topic to grok it.
Asking an experienced engineer how they would go about solving something is perfectly acceptable. That's all.
I would argue that those "hours wasting time" looking for an answer yourself before you give up and ask someone more senior aren't a waste - they are an invaluable part of becoming senior yourself.
As a senior engineer, you will often spend hours and days stuck trying to solve hard problems with noone else to ask, and having the grit, determination and creativity to do this is one of the greatest skills you can teach an engineer. Having barriers and friction in the name of this self sufficiency is totally fine and likely beneficial to the development of a junior dev.
I would argue that those hours can really be wasted. Yes, learning the system brings long-term benefits. But the way the system is learned can be of different effectiveness, significantly different.
Having a lot of questions could mean, that the onboarding isn't set right - and this can very significantly influence the developer productivity, even middle-term.
That doesn't mean the newcomer doesn't need to think or is allowed to abuse the system :) - in my experience, the situations when the questions are legitimate are just too frequent, so it makes sense to not consider questions undeserved out of hand.
>you will often spend hours and days stuck trying to solve hard problems with noone else to ask, and having the grit, determination and creativity to do this is one of the greatest skills you can teach an engineer
I would argue that _is_ the very definition of an Engineer.
Also it is an invaluable necessary skill to cultivate to navigate Life itself.
How would you suggest helping a dev ask better questions? Explicitly giving them guidelines seems aggressive. Though sometimes I have a hard time understanding the problem, or what was attempted.
With the resources available today there is just no excuse to not do some preliminary research on your own before asking others for help. Nothing is more infuriating than when somebody comes to you with some detailed question the answer (or an idea as to the possible answer) to which is readily available a Google search away. You have to do some homework before asking for others time to solve your problem. This is the only way to mentally get involved and engaged in problem-solving and is a necessary part of learning. Too many people nowadays don't even want to take the first step but want everything spoon-fed. This should not be tolerated nor encouraged.
These two comments summarize my experience as a self-taught programmer. Let me explain.
I discovered StackOverflow and conformed to it’s rules, which closely match the first comment.
When I get stuck and my questions receive little or no attention, I start with the assumption that I don’t know enough to ask a good question, or my approach is unconventional.
It’s then that I go to a more discursive community like Reddit. That was, until, COVID made my local Python MeetUp group go onto Discord where I can participate much more often.
Discord is the forum where your research and effort is valued and appreciated, but not absolutely necessary. This seems to match the second comment.
You can’t expect to receive a definite answer, but you can have an extemporaneous discussion and learn more common, orthodox solutions missing from your knowledge and experience.
This is a problem during lectures. If you ask immediately you may end up looking entirely stupid, but if you spend a few minutes thinking about it the topic already moves from it so you can no longer ask lol.
What is the best method for students to get a summer internship? What kind of things does hiring want to see from a student? What format of resumes are the most appealing? How do you negotiate costs and ensure the student can actually afford to live that work?
I've asked a number of people, including uni admins, and none of them are based on words from the people whom actually hire. Especially in software where resumes and hiring are worlds apart from accounting.
I was a non coding tech support nobody at one point in my career.
After a while I started to have specific tickets assigned to me from other techs. And then emails with people of the chain asking me to take a ticket.
Later I realized was that the engineering team several layers separated from me really liked my documentation and working with me.
I wrote accurate summaries. I was honest about what I did and didn't know. I remembered what they told me to ask customers from other tickets. The engineering team loved it.
The honest part was a big deal. In a place where folks tried to show how smart they were people were reluctant to admit they didn't know something or didn't ask the customer, it caused all sorts of issues that engineering hated.
It's difficult for starting people to ask out of school because their curiosity has been butchered by ego-maniac professors. For every 1 good professor, there are 1000 ego maniacs (professor + their TAs).
Mandatory reading for all new juniors. Better yet, in teams that rely on heavy domain knowledge sharing and complex problems or designs, annual review by everyone.
Just as important: ask "stupid" questions if you're a Lead or a Principal or whatever. First, you don't know everything, no one does. Second, it makes it easier for the Junior devs to ask their questions.
We had a rule during apprenticeship that we would would ask questions if we saw that a fellow was struggling to comprehend - and was too slow / shy to ask on their own, even if we already understood. We would ask these questions as stupidly as possible (within reasonable boundaries, of course) to make the teacher not just repeat what they already said but to make them find another way to explain it. That's when I learned that ego has no place in learning.
The one difficulty with this, and one I've had trouble with before, is when this strays into me, as a team member, being unsure if we're intentionally trying to look dumb/make something look harder than it is to another party in the company as part of some sort of internal politics.
Even less deviously, it can certainly throw a wrench into a meeting to have to explain some things to the least experienced person in the room, even if it's by proxy of someone more senior. I've had plenty of planning meetings get derailed because someone asked a lot of basic questions that 3/4 or more of the participants surely knew the answer to. Sometimes there's just value in following up later with your senior engineer about something you didn't understand instead of holding up a number of other people to get the explanation right now.
Absolutely. There is no magic point in your career where you know everything. Plus, it fosters a culture of asking. And often you’re not the only one in the room who doesn’t know. Often asking a stupid question like „I don’t know that word - Can you explain?“ will prompt further questions from other people.
It's true. People are visibly surprised at times when you shrug and say "no idea, but I can figure it out". It certainly helps if you can buttress it with analogies to other problems and tools, but not knowing things is fine and normal.
I don't work places where that attitude isn't welcomed, and you shouldn't either.
Just ask questions, period. Something seem strange about the stack you just inherited? Ask why. Sometimes simply raising the question can be a catalyst for change.
I'm going to take the contrarian perspective from this. People absolutely will judge you for stupid questions and you need to be careful about asking them. Dip your toe in the water and see what happens.
Actually, that's good advice for all of these types of articles (and it seems like we've had a bull run on 'ask dumb questions'). Organizations are fucked up. Bosses/People are assholes. The wildebeast that goes first in the river takes the biggest risk of being eaten. Watch and learn before taking the leap.
You're not wrong, but, the faster you get out of that organization (or into a healthier part of that organization), the faster you'll start growing. An organization that penalizes asking questions is almost certainly broken in other ways that you'll discover soon, and you'll be in a worse position when you're interviewing for your next job.
>, the faster you get out of that organization (or into a healthier part of that organization)
But you're not going to get there if you're being death rolled by a crocodile in the middle of the river. My point is not to not ask stupid questions. My point is to dip your toe in the water and see what happens instead of cannon-balling.
There definitely are stupid question that shows the person asking them was too lazy to think for a moment or at least google it. If people do not value my time, they are not worthy of it.
But yes, it is important to seperate that from beginners question, as it is easy to forget, that we all started as beginners.
I’d say that a significant number of folks in this industry seem to have severe self-image issues, and get some kind of balm from attacking/looking down on the work of others.
As the recipient of a great deal of this behavior (see “I ask ‘stupid’ questions all the time,” above), I think that it’s better to say “this is why we can’t have nice things,” and simply cover all my bases by not attacking others.
It’s quite easy to say “no,” in a way that does not cast shame or judgment onto others.
If someone asks a question I can easily answer; even if they are being “lazy” (which I believe to be an overused, and misunderstood word), or even trolling, I answer it in good faith. If I don’t have time, I say “I’m not able to answer that, right now,” or simply ignore it, if I can do so, in a way that does not come across as judgmental.
Easy-peasey. That way, I don’t make enemies quickly. If someone perceives me as a “soft touch,” or as an easy place to get answers, that’s not actually a bad thing.
As we get older, we discover that making friends, and not making enemies, is a lot more important than being perceived as “superior.” Relationships may be the single most valuable artifact of our lives.
I’m a good friend to have. I always find it fascinating, how so many folks start our relationship out by quickly judging me (negatively, of course), and attacking me. They've never had any contact with me before, and their very first interaction with me is an insult or attack (quite frequently, landing wide of the mark). I consider that to be rather self-destructive behavior.
"If someone asks a question I can easily answer; even if they are being “lazy” (which I believe to be an overused, and misunderstood word), or even trolling, I answer it in good faith. If I don’t have time, I say “I’m not able to answer that, right now,” or simply ignore it, if I can do so, in a way that does not come across as judgmental."
That is a nice habit, but I actually think I have the right to sometimes answer in a judgmental way, to honestly communicate my emotions about the topic (time wasting). And I found out, that this can work, too. But yes, if I am particulary annoyed, that can also lead to other people getting afraid to ask me anything at some point and rather continue do something stupid.
Oh, I have the right (and linguistic skill) to be dick majuere. But, like so many of these “rights,” I should also expect to be held to account, and suffer consequences, for exercising said “right.”
If people see me being cooperative, helpful, and a source of good information, they will develop one type of opinion of me.
If they see me as prickly, judgmental, arrogant, and pugilistic, then they will develop another type of opinion of me.
Depending on who is developing that opinion, the consequences (and rewards) to me can be quite significant.
"If people see me being cooperative, helpful, and a source of good information, they will develop one type of opinion of me."
Yes, and sometimes that opinion might be: "this is the idiot who does all the work for you, if I just ask him". That would be a significant consequence for you.
I do not know you, nor if you have ever been in that situation, but I've known too many helpful people getting exploited this way - and I have choosen to not try to exploit, nor be exploited.
> "this is the idiot who does all the work for you, if I just ask him"
Hasn't been a problem for me, so far (and it's been around 35 years). Learning how to respectfully say "no" is an important life skill. Pays dividends way beyond just not being treated as the office Wikipedia.
We seem to have unrealistically low opinions of our peers. I don't know if I've ever worked with anyone that has wanted me (or anyone else) to do their work for them. I have known a number of folks that were "in over their heads," and tried to hide the fact, but it never lasted too long. I guess I've been fortunate.
> There definitely are stupid question that shows the person asking them was too lazy to think for a moment or at least google it.
Even this is rare. If you're getting too many "now what? now what?" questions in a row when the answer is literally right there, yeah, that's annoying. So much of the time I find it's just one of those things where people's cognition works completely differently. They might have thought really hard about it but were barking up the wrong tree. Or they might not have even known what the right search terms were for the problem.
How many times have you searched for something and the highest ranking result is from StackOverflow, but the thread says "this question is closed because it's a duplicate" or "this question is closed because it's a tools question and off-topic".
These are obviously valuable questions as indicated by their search ranking, but the collective acts like they are dumb questions or like someone isn't paying attention.
"They might have thought really hard about it but were barking up the wrong tree. Or they might not have even known what the right search terms were for the problem."
Sure. Then it still might be a stupid question, but one worth answering. I know that I ask stupid question at times.
Co-opting an idea from Daniel Dennett: try to always have a junior developer around so when senior engineers are talking past each other and no one’s pride will allow them to ask the basic questions that could clear things up, there’s someone there to do it.
You make a good point. I noticed that the developers I enjoy working with are those that are vulnerable about their knowledge gaps. It's just easy to toss ideas around with someone that is open and willing to show they don't know everything.
I see these articles all the time and I don’t really get it. Are people walking around just terrified of looking stupid? When did that become a cultural value? Where is that being taught and reinforced?
I just don’t get the need for this article. Asking questions is foundational. It would be like seeing a flurry of “Don’t be afraid that drinking water at work will make you look dehydrated” articles. Or “Just drink coffee from time to time.” Or “Use the restroom when needed.” It’s just weird to me that people need to be told this, and it makes me suspect there is an underlying failure of culture or education at play.
Would anyone who has had this experience be willing to share insight?
It is being taught and reinforced by bad attitudes in tech. I've spent time with plenty of narcissistic engineers that will treat you as being stupid. Sometimes those people are very overconfident and get a lot of social influence, leading to them (mis)managing other people.
It's also fear. You're a new software developer and you just got your first job. You see how much more the other developers know than you and you're intimidated. "Well, I don't want to look stupid". You don't ask questions that you need to because of self-imposed fear and it stalls learning.
The article is right but its ambitions are too low. Everyone needs to ask helpful questions in the right way and at the right time. This is simple but not easy.
I'm a staff-level engineer at a well-known tech company. One of the most important things I do is ask simple/"dumb" questions of other very smart but more junior engineers.
I try to ask questions they haven't considered or explained well. I ask questions that poke at the assumptions and basic tenets of the problem. I ask honest, non-leading questions to which I genuinely want to know the answer. Other kinds of feedback are not appropriate questions.
My Kubernetes and other SRE-style knowledge is limited, so I ask dumb questions there. Sometimes the response is "uhm this is a basic concept" but every time I've done that other engs in the room tell me they were afraid of asking the very same questions. (And tbh many times the answers point to a lack of understanding of fundamentals.)
So the key is to be genuinely curious and optimistic, try to guide others to ask and answer similar questions on their own and present them at the right level of detail in their presentation/documentation. And to encourage all engineers regardless of seniority to do the same.
A key point is doing this at the right times. During a 10-person meeting with directors is not the right time to ask questions that could send things back to the drawing-board. Such meetings are ceremony.
If there are big questions about feasibility etc at a 10-person director-level meeting, you need to go into backroom fire-fighting mode to figure out how to save the project and let everyone save face. In the moment is almost never the right time.
If there are tech problems or questions, ask the small group of people who did the thinking, and ask them in a low-stakes setting. All questions must be asked in good-faith to gain any level of respect and overall progress for everyone involved.
Questions are NOT an opportunity to show off, to politick, or to start lots of little fires that everyone must put out before proceeding.
This is half the art of questions at senior and staff levels: when to ask them, to whom to ask them, and how to help guide the action based on the answer even if you disagree with the conclusions.
I feel what most call "stupid questions" come from people assuming others have the same context and have the same assumptions about some topic. It's a kind of communication failure imho.
Your advice (which is excellent btw) mostly targets this kind of thing.
A couple jobs ago we had a dedicated "dumb-questions" slack channel that only junior-mid devs were invited to; no managers, so there won't be any fear of judgement. Often the juniors would end up answering each other's questions. Another reason it worked well was that, being a group channel, you didn't have to worry about bothering a specific person who might be busy.
I have found that asking "stupid questions" in the form of "I don't understand X, can you explain it to me?" is very valuable, as it forces people to agree on a common interpretation of an issue. In fact, most technical discussions are more about gaining a common understanding of an issue than about a solution. Once everyone has the same understanding of a given problem, the solution space becomes much clearer.
Knowing some procedural bash and being a certified Associate python programmer at python institute, I still don't recognize OOP patterns unless explicitly stated. I just got hired in a golang centric org.
How can I train / learn recognizing and employing OOP patterns or industry standards so I don't have to bother colleagues with my ignorance? (No CS background, education in the humanities.)
As a young female software developer, I was told to ask less questions. This led to situations where I'd be stuck hours on end due to things like backend/config changes that no one told me about and I wouldn't have known. So just a tip that this advice doesn't necessarily hold if you're a minority software developer. Later I was told that I was a good dev but my confidence wasn't good enough. Hmm, wonder what could have contributed to that? :/
Sorry to hear that. I feel privileged to have had the chance to ask questions quite liberally and it has been an important avenue for learning in my career. I recognize that is a privilege; I hope that it does not remain that way, that everyone has access to this way of learning.
I think most workplaces would benefit better from having junior devs pair with other devs and cultivating this kind of thing but my experience was that most startups were very frustrated with junior/midlevel devs and just wanted to fill their ranks with fullstack "rockstars". I don't know if things have changed but it just seemed like there were rarely true junior or mid level dev positions, and in my case even when there were, they company would come back in about 6 months in and admit they didn't really have the resources for someone to do the kind of pairing/mentoring needed for someone in a junior role :/
There's a female oriented code bootcamp where I live but I wasn't allowed in because I was "overqualified". I didn't really fit anywhere. Tech culture got more and more alienating to me so I'm not in that industry anymore. My best job was overseas in Berlin but I did see that that kind of "tech bro" culture seeping into workplaces there as well.
> As a young female software developer, I was told to ask less questions
Someone at work explicitly told you that because you are a female, you should ask less questions because of the sex you are born with? was it a coworker on the same level as yours or a manager?
Or is it a policy at your business not to practice onboarding? If it's the former, it's a clear cut case of sexism and I suggest you report the employee who made that comment to your hierarchy.
Most cases of sexism aren't "clear cut". If you're the only woman in the office, it can be hard to figure out what's going on. Believe me that you try to explain certain things away and don't want to go to sexism as a first choice or a choice at all. But when you're a year in and you still notice there are very real differences in the way you're treated versus your male colleagues you have to start accepting that sexism sadly may have something to do with it.
It's not the kind of thing that you can just talk to your manager about when it's that subtle. For example there was increased hostility to me versus the other employees over Slack and Pull requests. If I mentioned that it would be invalidated/ignored/I'd be told to toughen up. And as I said, the company made their main problem with me in the end "You're such a great dev, but you don't have confidence! Own it!" at the same time while fostering an environment where any concerns about the way I was treated, help I needed as a junior dev, etc was not taken seriously.
That job was by far the worst example and when I was overseas in Berlin that team was much healthier, but you still run into everyday stuff like, "Oh I won't use that kind of language because a lady is present".
> Most cases of sexism aren't "clear cut". If you're the only woman in the office, it can be hard to figure out what's going on. Believe me that you try to explain certain things away and don't want to go to sexism as a first choice or a choice at all. But when you're a year in and you still notice there are very real differences in the way you're treated versus your male colleagues you have to start accepting that sexism sadly may have something to do with it.
This one is a clear-cut case of sexism. If you allow yourself to be discriminated against by a co-worker, why would that co-worker stop being sexist toward you or other women employees? at first place. Report them.
If the hierarchy does nothing about it, then it's a sexist workplace and it should be called out for it, publicly. Time isn't for inaction anymore, inaction is what helps perpetuate and normalize that behavior.
You said you had access to a group of female developers for support, did you talk about that incident to your group? Did they tell you to shut up about it? I think not.
You rightfully said females are a minority, well consider the positive impact of reporting workplace sexism, for females as a class.
It's easy to give this "advice" when you're not knee-deep in this person's situation (I'm not in it, either). It's much harder to practice it when you're just trying to keep your head above water.
There are few positive benefits currently to reporting things like sexism in the workplace, sexual harassment, even rape. It sucks that it's like that but that's the reality right now. The reality is that they probably won't be addressed. If less than one percent of rapists actually get convicted, what kind of "positive impact" do you think will come of reporting workplace sexism? Like the other reply to this post, things aren't so black and white. Maybe you report it, nothing is done, you lose your job, you can't get hired at other places because other companies see that you were involved in a legal thing. Maybe now you have mental health issues from dealing with how it dragged out and how people in your life aren't supportive.
I'm not saying that people shouldn't tolerate workplace harassment or not report crimes or abuse, or that no one should report it, but I'm saying that there are actual legitimate reasons for people not to and some of those reasons are that it's personal and traumatic to be dragged through the emotions and public display of this, some of the reasons are financial, and so forth. If you're a minority you learn to protect yourself by choosing your battles because you encounter sexism/racism/ableism daily, and every time you do stand up for yourself it brings back all the trauma of the people who attack you for doing so, and tell you you're overreacting, creating problems, dramatic, lying, and so forth. Sometimes it's not worth it.
Please show some empathy. You have no idea what it's like to be in a situation like this. And I didn't have "Access to a group of female developers for support". What do you think it's like some union where even if this existed, the members of this could have any kind of collective power to do anything? And I'm willing to bet if there was something like this the group for sure would be respecting a woman's individual right to do what she thinks is best in the situation that she's in, instead of blindly telling her to fight back and expend that emotional labor, because the other women have lived that and know about picking your battles.
Put the onus on the organizations rather than the people who are minorities because you have no fucking voice as a minority. We need allies to be heard and taken seriously and "Well YOU SHOULD HAVE REPORTED IT" is not being an ally. Fostering an environment where that doesn't happen and the entire burden isn't put on the minority to do something about it is what needs to happen. This isn't a "women's problem" or something that will "help women as a class" this hurts everyone. So be an ally to women and be curious instead of judgemental because you haven't lived life as a minority. The fact that you are posting things like this about what "should" be happening means that you're already judging, and assuming, and contributing to the problem.
Have you ever tried reporting anything to HR? HRs main job is to protect the company. If the person you’re reporting about is higher up/difficult to hire for/knows the right execs, HR doesn’t really have much power to do anything. For cases where there isn’t enough clear evidence, their incentive is to not take any action at all. The reporter is now recorded as being “a problem” and they will get treated even worse.
Why are you writing as if being female is why you were told to ask less questions but then not explaining why that was actually confirmed to be the case?
One of the things that becomes obvious as I gain experience, is that I actually think I know less.
As I gain experience the number of things that I could know something about seems to increase at an exponential rate, but my knowledge still only increases at the same rate... So as time goes on, the level of knowledge of all things decreases.
So, I ask stupid questions all the time, because I know that something may be related to what we are working on, but I don't have the knowledge to be able to ask smart questions. At this point, any question can help you get to how the subject area can help.
Don't worry about looking stupid asking questions. Anybody in this game who claims they know everything lying, there is just too much to know.
Here is what i do at every new job where by definition i am the "new" software developer. Note that the below activities are not necessarily sequential;
* Ask for any and all user manual, design and code documentation however incomplete. This could be docs/pdfs/wikis etc. Spend a few days/week on going through this and taking notes.
* Ask a Senior/Knowledgeable developer who has a good idea of the entire System/Codebase for a few hours of his time for a couple of days. Take him to lunch and segue into a "brain dump" of the System. Again take notes. In particular; spend a few hours going over the layout of the codebase and writing down an overview of each component.
* Don't ask questions while doing the above. Your aim is to get an idea of the "lay of the land" as far as the logical/functional and physical design of the system is concerned. Absorb the information and try to form a model/image of the system in your mind.
* Sit with QA or another developer to learn to run and use the system as a end user. I always find this difficult since one needs to have an idea of what the system does before one can understand how to use it.
* Now you have some internal view i.e. logical/functional design and physical codebase layout which you can attempt to map to end user functionality. Start diving into the code, fixing bugs, adding small features to gain understanding and confidence.
* You can now start asking any and all questions and revising your understanding of the system and its code.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 187 ms ] threadBonus Points if you summarize your quick research efforts.
Extra Bonus Points if this leads to more questions.
(Caveat emptor: _many_ engineers are decidedly antisocial, but if you show that you did prior research before asking, you're showing to them that you value their time as much as your own, and there's a better chance that they will be receptive to collaboration.)
After lunch break or meetings is also great.
Write down where they were, move on with something else until they get a reply.
Of course now I realize people who need the message won't read it.
Careful with that step: you might answer your own question.
Even then, if you did that but want more context, that's not stupid.
I'm still surprised how much I need to Google for others...
You need to welcome questions even from people who have apparently done no research at all, or juniors will always worry that you'll accuse them of not doing the "necessary" work up front. If you're kind and approachable, and you don't tell people off for failing to meet your minimum requirements, you can guide them to finding it themselves.
To be clear, I don't believe I've ever said these "rules" aloud.
When someone comes to me for help, the first step is for them to explain the problem. The next step is for them to discuss what solutions they're considering. If they're at a loss, I open a browser window and ask them what they think a good query would look like, and pattern behavior that helps them in the future, and we work off of that for a bit before I may suggest actual implementation strategies, and walk through pros and cons of each approach.
Advice for junior devs: Asking "how do I even go about searching for this?" is also a perfect acceptable question. Another format: "how do YOU generally research things?"
People aren't perfect.
I think you misunderstood my intent. I was simply saying that sometimes a junior dev might not even know what question they're trying to ask, or how to go about researching a topic to grok it.
Asking an experienced engineer how they would go about solving something is perfectly acceptable. That's all.
As a senior engineer, you will often spend hours and days stuck trying to solve hard problems with noone else to ask, and having the grit, determination and creativity to do this is one of the greatest skills you can teach an engineer. Having barriers and friction in the name of this self sufficiency is totally fine and likely beneficial to the development of a junior dev.
Having a lot of questions could mean, that the onboarding isn't set right - and this can very significantly influence the developer productivity, even middle-term.
That doesn't mean the newcomer doesn't need to think or is allowed to abuse the system :) - in my experience, the situations when the questions are legitimate are just too frequent, so it makes sense to not consider questions undeserved out of hand.
>you will often spend hours and days stuck trying to solve hard problems with noone else to ask, and having the grit, determination and creativity to do this is one of the greatest skills you can teach an engineer
I would argue that _is_ the very definition of an Engineer.
Also it is an invaluable necessary skill to cultivate to navigate Life itself.
With the resources available today there is just no excuse to not do some preliminary research on your own before asking others for help. Nothing is more infuriating than when somebody comes to you with some detailed question the answer (or an idea as to the possible answer) to which is readily available a Google search away. You have to do some homework before asking for others time to solve your problem. This is the only way to mentally get involved and engaged in problem-solving and is a necessary part of learning. Too many people nowadays don't even want to take the first step but want everything spoon-fed. This should not be tolerated nor encouraged.
I discovered StackOverflow and conformed to it’s rules, which closely match the first comment.
When I get stuck and my questions receive little or no attention, I start with the assumption that I don’t know enough to ask a good question, or my approach is unconventional.
It’s then that I go to a more discursive community like Reddit. That was, until, COVID made my local Python MeetUp group go onto Discord where I can participate much more often.
Discord is the forum where your research and effort is valued and appreciated, but not absolutely necessary. This seems to match the second comment.
You can’t expect to receive a definite answer, but you can have an extemporaneous discussion and learn more common, orthodox solutions missing from your knowledge and experience.
YMMV
Or they think they understand the answer, but really don’t, and end up making a mess.
Basically, true beginners do best with a mentor.
I've asked a number of people, including uni admins, and none of them are based on words from the people whom actually hire. Especially in software where resumes and hiring are worlds apart from accounting.
After a while I started to have specific tickets assigned to me from other techs. And then emails with people of the chain asking me to take a ticket.
Later I realized was that the engineering team several layers separated from me really liked my documentation and working with me.
I wrote accurate summaries. I was honest about what I did and didn't know. I remembered what they told me to ask customers from other tickets. The engineering team loved it.
The honest part was a big deal. In a place where folks tried to show how smart they were people were reluctant to admit they didn't know something or didn't ask the customer, it caused all sorts of issues that engineering hated.
https://www.stavros.io/posts/how-to-ask-for-help/
Giving the other person all the relevant details helps you both immensely.
Mandatory reading for all new juniors. Better yet, in teams that rely on heavy domain knowledge sharing and complex problems or designs, annual review by everyone.
One thing he did: ask questions he already knew the answers to on big meetings
I initially thought he had a bad memory. Instead, he was thinking like a new hire. What would a college hire want explained right now?
And you’re also right, once someone with sway has asked a question - and been met with an honest answer - it makes it easier for others to do the same
Even less deviously, it can certainly throw a wrench into a meeting to have to explain some things to the least experienced person in the room, even if it's by proxy of someone more senior. I've had plenty of planning meetings get derailed because someone asked a lot of basic questions that 3/4 or more of the participants surely knew the answer to. Sometimes there's just value in following up later with your senior engineer about something you didn't understand instead of holding up a number of other people to get the explanation right now.
We all have brain farts, and don’t know everything!
I don't work places where that attitude isn't welcomed, and you shouldn't either.
Actually, that's good advice for all of these types of articles (and it seems like we've had a bull run on 'ask dumb questions'). Organizations are fucked up. Bosses/People are assholes. The wildebeast that goes first in the river takes the biggest risk of being eaten. Watch and learn before taking the leap.
But you're not going to get there if you're being death rolled by a crocodile in the middle of the river. My point is not to not ask stupid questions. My point is to dip your toe in the water and see what happens instead of cannon-balling.
If you're the unfirable 10X rockstar LC awesome dev, this is how you make your org healthier.
Don't like it? Think I'm stupid? Go ahead. It's a free country. Think what you like. Whatever creams your twinkie.
I'd say an important attached property of this "rule," is "Don't treat any question as 'stupid.'"
That way, we don't become what is known in the vernacular as "assholes."
There definitely are stupid question that shows the person asking them was too lazy to think for a moment or at least google it. If people do not value my time, they are not worthy of it.
But yes, it is important to seperate that from beginners question, as it is easy to forget, that we all started as beginners.
As the recipient of a great deal of this behavior (see “I ask ‘stupid’ questions all the time,” above), I think that it’s better to say “this is why we can’t have nice things,” and simply cover all my bases by not attacking others.
It’s quite easy to say “no,” in a way that does not cast shame or judgment onto others.
If someone asks a question I can easily answer; even if they are being “lazy” (which I believe to be an overused, and misunderstood word), or even trolling, I answer it in good faith. If I don’t have time, I say “I’m not able to answer that, right now,” or simply ignore it, if I can do so, in a way that does not come across as judgmental.
Easy-peasey. That way, I don’t make enemies quickly. If someone perceives me as a “soft touch,” or as an easy place to get answers, that’s not actually a bad thing.
As we get older, we discover that making friends, and not making enemies, is a lot more important than being perceived as “superior.” Relationships may be the single most valuable artifact of our lives.
I’m a good friend to have. I always find it fascinating, how so many folks start our relationship out by quickly judging me (negatively, of course), and attacking me. They've never had any contact with me before, and their very first interaction with me is an insult or attack (quite frequently, landing wide of the mark). I consider that to be rather self-destructive behavior.
I try not to do that to others.
That is a nice habit, but I actually think I have the right to sometimes answer in a judgmental way, to honestly communicate my emotions about the topic (time wasting). And I found out, that this can work, too. But yes, if I am particulary annoyed, that can also lead to other people getting afraid to ask me anything at some point and rather continue do something stupid.
If people see me being cooperative, helpful, and a source of good information, they will develop one type of opinion of me.
If they see me as prickly, judgmental, arrogant, and pugilistic, then they will develop another type of opinion of me.
Depending on who is developing that opinion, the consequences (and rewards) to me can be quite significant.
Yes, and sometimes that opinion might be: "this is the idiot who does all the work for you, if I just ask him". That would be a significant consequence for you.
I do not know you, nor if you have ever been in that situation, but I've known too many helpful people getting exploited this way - and I have choosen to not try to exploit, nor be exploited.
Hasn't been a problem for me, so far (and it's been around 35 years). Learning how to respectfully say "no" is an important life skill. Pays dividends way beyond just not being treated as the office Wikipedia.
We seem to have unrealistically low opinions of our peers. I don't know if I've ever worked with anyone that has wanted me (or anyone else) to do their work for them. I have known a number of folks that were "in over their heads," and tried to hide the fact, but it never lasted too long. I guess I've been fortunate.
Even this is rare. If you're getting too many "now what? now what?" questions in a row when the answer is literally right there, yeah, that's annoying. So much of the time I find it's just one of those things where people's cognition works completely differently. They might have thought really hard about it but were barking up the wrong tree. Or they might not have even known what the right search terms were for the problem.
How many times have you searched for something and the highest ranking result is from StackOverflow, but the thread says "this question is closed because it's a duplicate" or "this question is closed because it's a tools question and off-topic".
These are obviously valuable questions as indicated by their search ranking, but the collective acts like they are dumb questions or like someone isn't paying attention.
Sure. Then it still might be a stupid question, but one worth answering. I know that I ask stupid question at times.
I just don’t get the need for this article. Asking questions is foundational. It would be like seeing a flurry of “Don’t be afraid that drinking water at work will make you look dehydrated” articles. Or “Just drink coffee from time to time.” Or “Use the restroom when needed.” It’s just weird to me that people need to be told this, and it makes me suspect there is an underlying failure of culture or education at play.
Would anyone who has had this experience be willing to share insight?
Power and politics at the macro level.
I'm a staff-level engineer at a well-known tech company. One of the most important things I do is ask simple/"dumb" questions of other very smart but more junior engineers.
I try to ask questions they haven't considered or explained well. I ask questions that poke at the assumptions and basic tenets of the problem. I ask honest, non-leading questions to which I genuinely want to know the answer. Other kinds of feedback are not appropriate questions.
My Kubernetes and other SRE-style knowledge is limited, so I ask dumb questions there. Sometimes the response is "uhm this is a basic concept" but every time I've done that other engs in the room tell me they were afraid of asking the very same questions. (And tbh many times the answers point to a lack of understanding of fundamentals.)
So the key is to be genuinely curious and optimistic, try to guide others to ask and answer similar questions on their own and present them at the right level of detail in their presentation/documentation. And to encourage all engineers regardless of seniority to do the same.
A key point is doing this at the right times. During a 10-person meeting with directors is not the right time to ask questions that could send things back to the drawing-board. Such meetings are ceremony.
If there are big questions about feasibility etc at a 10-person director-level meeting, you need to go into backroom fire-fighting mode to figure out how to save the project and let everyone save face. In the moment is almost never the right time.
If there are tech problems or questions, ask the small group of people who did the thinking, and ask them in a low-stakes setting. All questions must be asked in good-faith to gain any level of respect and overall progress for everyone involved.
Questions are NOT an opportunity to show off, to politick, or to start lots of little fires that everyone must put out before proceeding.
This is half the art of questions at senior and staff levels: when to ask them, to whom to ask them, and how to help guide the action based on the answer even if you disagree with the conclusions.
Your advice (which is excellent btw) mostly targets this kind of thing.
How can I train / learn recognizing and employing OOP patterns or industry standards so I don't have to bother colleagues with my ignorance? (No CS background, education in the humanities.)
There's a female oriented code bootcamp where I live but I wasn't allowed in because I was "overqualified". I didn't really fit anywhere. Tech culture got more and more alienating to me so I'm not in that industry anymore. My best job was overseas in Berlin but I did see that that kind of "tech bro" culture seeping into workplaces there as well.
Someone at work explicitly told you that because you are a female, you should ask less questions because of the sex you are born with? was it a coworker on the same level as yours or a manager?
Or is it a policy at your business not to practice onboarding? If it's the former, it's a clear cut case of sexism and I suggest you report the employee who made that comment to your hierarchy.
It's not the kind of thing that you can just talk to your manager about when it's that subtle. For example there was increased hostility to me versus the other employees over Slack and Pull requests. If I mentioned that it would be invalidated/ignored/I'd be told to toughen up. And as I said, the company made their main problem with me in the end "You're such a great dev, but you don't have confidence! Own it!" at the same time while fostering an environment where any concerns about the way I was treated, help I needed as a junior dev, etc was not taken seriously.
That job was by far the worst example and when I was overseas in Berlin that team was much healthier, but you still run into everyday stuff like, "Oh I won't use that kind of language because a lady is present".
This one is a clear-cut case of sexism. If you allow yourself to be discriminated against by a co-worker, why would that co-worker stop being sexist toward you or other women employees? at first place. Report them.
If the hierarchy does nothing about it, then it's a sexist workplace and it should be called out for it, publicly. Time isn't for inaction anymore, inaction is what helps perpetuate and normalize that behavior.
You said you had access to a group of female developers for support, did you talk about that incident to your group? Did they tell you to shut up about it? I think not.
You rightfully said females are a minority, well consider the positive impact of reporting workplace sexism, for females as a class.
I'm not saying that people shouldn't tolerate workplace harassment or not report crimes or abuse, or that no one should report it, but I'm saying that there are actual legitimate reasons for people not to and some of those reasons are that it's personal and traumatic to be dragged through the emotions and public display of this, some of the reasons are financial, and so forth. If you're a minority you learn to protect yourself by choosing your battles because you encounter sexism/racism/ableism daily, and every time you do stand up for yourself it brings back all the trauma of the people who attack you for doing so, and tell you you're overreacting, creating problems, dramatic, lying, and so forth. Sometimes it's not worth it.
Please show some empathy. You have no idea what it's like to be in a situation like this. And I didn't have "Access to a group of female developers for support". What do you think it's like some union where even if this existed, the members of this could have any kind of collective power to do anything? And I'm willing to bet if there was something like this the group for sure would be respecting a woman's individual right to do what she thinks is best in the situation that she's in, instead of blindly telling her to fight back and expend that emotional labor, because the other women have lived that and know about picking your battles.
Put the onus on the organizations rather than the people who are minorities because you have no fucking voice as a minority. We need allies to be heard and taken seriously and "Well YOU SHOULD HAVE REPORTED IT" is not being an ally. Fostering an environment where that doesn't happen and the entire burden isn't put on the minority to do something about it is what needs to happen. This isn't a "women's problem" or something that will "help women as a class" this hurts everyone. So be an ally to women and be curious instead of judgemental because you haven't lived life as a minority. The fact that you are posting things like this about what "should" be happening means that you're already judging, and assuming, and contributing to the problem.
As I gain experience the number of things that I could know something about seems to increase at an exponential rate, but my knowledge still only increases at the same rate... So as time goes on, the level of knowledge of all things decreases.
So, I ask stupid questions all the time, because I know that something may be related to what we are working on, but I don't have the knowledge to be able to ask smart questions. At this point, any question can help you get to how the subject area can help.
Don't worry about looking stupid asking questions. Anybody in this game who claims they know everything lying, there is just too much to know.
* Ask for any and all user manual, design and code documentation however incomplete. This could be docs/pdfs/wikis etc. Spend a few days/week on going through this and taking notes.
* Ask a Senior/Knowledgeable developer who has a good idea of the entire System/Codebase for a few hours of his time for a couple of days. Take him to lunch and segue into a "brain dump" of the System. Again take notes. In particular; spend a few hours going over the layout of the codebase and writing down an overview of each component.
* Don't ask questions while doing the above. Your aim is to get an idea of the "lay of the land" as far as the logical/functional and physical design of the system is concerned. Absorb the information and try to form a model/image of the system in your mind.
* Sit with QA or another developer to learn to run and use the system as a end user. I always find this difficult since one needs to have an idea of what the system does before one can understand how to use it.
* Now you have some internal view i.e. logical/functional design and physical codebase layout which you can attempt to map to end user functionality. Start diving into the code, fixing bugs, adding small features to gain understanding and confidence.
* You can now start asking any and all questions and revising your understanding of the system and its code.