Have you ever had someone ask you a question that was so confusing and out there that you don’t even know what they’re asking? Or a question where you have to repeatedly ask the person to clarify what they are asking? These are examples of not so smart questions. The best way to ask technical questions is to be precise and to the point - in other words, a smart question. With smart questions, you instantly know what the person is asking and you don’t have to ponder what they are thinking. A good smart question with the right wording and terminology makes it much easier to form a good answer right away. In academia it is very easy to ask dumb questions because the teacher or professor is paid to answer your question and that is their job to help you learn. As you transfer into the working world, people are not paid to help you or are sometimes not willing to help you. Often the best chance to get help is to go to forum sites like stackoverflow and ask precise questions that professionals can easily answer and not those where they have to really think about what the person is asking.
Stackoverflow is a great resource for software developers that are stuck on a programming issue who need help to make progress. In my time of writing code and testing my programs I have seen a lot of different questions that were smart. For example, this question about adding columns to a data frame that can identify changed rows. The person was using python and got stuck trying to add a column for duplicate rows in his data frame. I liked that he precisely explained what he was trying to do in a clear and understandable way so that anyone could attempt to answer the questions. The person also included sample lines of code and the results he was getting. I think that is a great way to get a good answer fast and reliably. It is really easy to make a simple mistake that you overlook. While coding, it is very important to have the right ordering and syntax for the language that you are using. By providing lines it is easier to catch these simple mistakes because it is a new programmer reviewing it.
Link to the Smart Question
While searching through Stackoverflow you will find a lot of people asking very vague and confusing questions. For example, I came across this question that was not really a question, just a person wanting advice on html to remove span tags on his output. His question was phrased poorly and when reading the first time I had a hard time understanding what he wanted to do. I did like that he had an example of the output that he wanted to get with some code. You cannot expect to get a good answer if you have a poorly phrased question. Many people in the community agreed with me in saying that the question was not a smart question, it received a -3 rating on StackOverFlow.
Link to the Not so Smart Question
In my time of coding, I have used stackoverflow when I am stuck on a coding problem. I have found that the more effort you put into your questions, in forming them and asking them using the correct terminology, you have a better chance of getting answers that are helpful and what you want. You should understand that the amount of effort you put in will affect the quality of the answers you will receive. With that being said, don’t be mad if no one answers your questions when you do not put the effort into making a good smart question.