Don't ask for an A, ask to learn
25 Jan 2018
From doing simple math and writing three sentence paragraphs to doing Calculus and analyzing
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, we are taught that results matter. At the end of the day, teachers
give you a grade whether you have the correct answer. This does not push any other thoughts
besides “What am I going to do to receive an A for this class.” Students especially want to get
the work done as fast as possible so they can focus on their “other” life. When students ask a
question they expect the answer. This does not reinforce the idea of actually understanding the
material to apply it in future scenarios. Going through the stack exchange forums, there are
many homework questions that would have in-depth answers while others they would ridicule
the original poster for not doing their own homework. As a software engineer, it is vital to learn
how to ask smart questions that improve your understanding of the topic, not just finding a
correct answer.
Homework or class problems are not meant to be easy tasks that one can do immediately. Before asking for help there are other alternatives that one can do. This includes an attempt at the problem first then review in class notes to help. If that option fails, then before making a post on stack exchange it is easier to search up a similar question related to your problem to find hints that could get you on the right track. If all else fails one can make an elaborate post to explain the problem, what you attempted, and how you think you can approach it next. Even though your approach may be the wrong approach people online love to jump the gun and call people out on their mistakes and provide you with a correct approach. In this scenario, the original poster provided his question along with his code. He explained what the code was supposed to do and what it didn’t do. Then he shared what he thought was the next path for him to fix this problem followed up with an update to his understanding of the mistake.
Stupid questions do exist, but when rephrased they could be made into a smart question. In this
scenario
, the original poster wanted to know why is code was not compiling as he was learning
from C++ from a video. The first thing that sticks out is that the poster did not get too far into
learning C++, only the first few minutes of the video where he could compare the code from the
video’s to his to understand his mistake. The moment that he ran into a problem, he decides to
ask for up before making any further attempts. This is not handled well as the replies to this
question may have been rude and sarcastic but it was well intended as the poster did not spend
any effort into solving this problem. There was also no update to the question which could be
interpreted as a quick answer to a question with little to no understanding afterward.
Learning and making are two completely separate things. I can learn how to ask smart questions, yet if I wish to take the easier path and prefer an answer and risk my own understanding that is entirely possible. It is important for me to create this new habit of asking “smarter” questions to improve my own learning. I can’t get better at asking smart questions if I am stuck in my personal mental block wasting not only my time but the audience that I am trying to receive information from.