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Everyone has heard the adage “there’s no such thing as a bad question”. Unfortunately, there most certainly are such things as bad questions. But fear not, having a bad question is a natural step on the way to asking good questions. I hope that after reading this piece, you’ll have a much better time getting the information you want through questions you ask, and that solving problems becomes much easier for you to think about.
This post is going to be a wall of text, with very few fun graphics like my normal posts, so I will keep it as short as possible. I’ve distilled my advice down to what I’ve determined are the most useful, formed from my own experiences interacting with a variety of students, teachers, mentors, and mentees. It comes mostly from the perspective of a person in computer science, but many of the ideas are generally applicable to problems you’ll encounter in life. In general, knowing how to solve problems is a key skill that many people under-develop. My hope is that you will read this as not an authoritative piece of how to solve problems, but that you will incorporate this perspective into your own and be a more effective problem solver and questioner.
Components of a good question
- Not trivially answerable, respectful of the person’s time and expertise.
- Planned, directed, and…
