1. Motivation for Asking Questions
There are two kinds of motivation for asking questions: passive and active.
2 Passive
Passive questioning is the forced action you take when you run into a problem, search for a solution, and come up empty.
2.1 Try to Solve It Yourself
When you hit a problem, do not rush to ask others. If time allows, try to solve it yourself first.
For one thing, it trains your ability to analyze and solve problems. For another, once the problem is solved it is no longer a problem but becomes part of your own experience and knowledge base.
2.2 Make Good Use of Knowledge Bases
A problem is never isolated; it comes with a certain background and context. Combining that background, you can find documents such as Q&A pages or wikis. These documents usually give the exact answer to the problem, or a relevant hint.
2.3 Make Good Use of Search
If conditions allow, use google.
Here are some tips for searching with google:
- Use "" for an exact match
- Use * for a fuzzy match
- Use site: to restrict to a specific website
- Use - to exclude keywords
3 A Good Question
3.1 A Clear Title
3.2 An Accurate Body
- Describe the problem you ran into in clear language
- Provide the software environment, including the operating system, database, and other related software along with their version numbers
- Whether the problem can be reproduced, and by what method
- What measures you took to solve the problem and what the final result was (logs, programs, screenshots, and similar descriptions are welcome)
- Provide as many analyzable files related to the problem as possible, including logs, screenshots, and Core dumps
- Do not write an essay; be concise and describe the main problem
4. Active
Active questioning is the series of thoughts that arise spontaneously when you take in information. If you accept everything you read or hear without thinking, over time you will take other people’s views as your own.
In the end you lose the ability to think independently and lose critical thinking. The core of critical thinking is the need to creatively raise questions and then analyze and argue them reasonably.
Asking questions actively is an effective way to deepen understanding and stimulate your own thinking.
4.1 A Framework for Questioning
- What are the issue and the conclusion
- What are the reasons
- Which words are ambiguous
- What are the value assumptions and the descriptive assumptions
- Are there fallacies in the reasoning
- How strong is the evidence
- Are there alternative causes
- What important information has been omitted
- What reasonable conclusions can be drawn
