How to ask technical questions

RORO Meetup: 12th September 2017
We all need to ask questions, no matter what your skill level is.
Asking technical questions is one way to gain help.
Here are a few tips and observations on how to ensure you have a higher success rate of getting assistance when you ask for help.

Slide Notes: https://gist.github.com/matenia/212b9e03590602252d3c869381c94754

Transcript

1. HOW TO ASK TECHNICAL QUESTIONS a totally semi-useful, but highly opinionated talk based on my observations when both asking and answering questions
2. WARNING: I’M NOT AN EXPERT
3. I WORK HERE
4. WHY DO WE ASK QUESTIONS? • solve problems • learn something • different opinions
5. BUT WHERE?
8. WHAT SHOULD I ASK?
9. START SEARCHING!
10. NOPE! I NEED TO ASK FOR HELP!
11. WHAT DO I WANT TO ACHIEVE?
12. AM I SOLVING THE RIGHT PROBLEM?
13. HOW MUCH INFORMATION DO I NEED TO PROVIDE?
15. STRUCTURING YOUR QUESTION • Short description of your problem • Steps to reproduce • Any solutions you’ve tried (consider using a gist, embedding code, sample repo?) • Limitations? (Include Rails / Ruby / relevant gem versions or any other info that may adjust the nature of answers) • Closing sentence could be along the lines of “please let me know if I need to supply any further information”
16. AM I GIVING TOO MUCH INFO? • Take feedback on board • Learn from your questions (not just the answers) • More practice!
17. QUESTION QUALITY HAS A DIRECT RELATION TO ANSWER QUALITY ” “
18. FIN.