Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
How to ask questions and find the right answers
Search
Florian Plank
November 09, 2013
Programming
2
320
How to ask questions and find the right answers
An introduction to finding help online when beginning programming. Given at RailsGirls Oulu.
Florian Plank
November 09, 2013
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Florian Plank
See All by Florian Plank
Ready, set, immersion!
polarblau
0
160
Prototyping all the things
polarblau
2
140
CoffeeScript vs. ECMAScript 6
polarblau
5
3.3k
Design for a complex Reality — Siili Breakfast Edition
polarblau
0
110
Enabling Design for a Complex Reality
polarblau
2
110
A primer on Content Security Policy
polarblau
1
340
Rails and the future of the open web
polarblau
3
110
Brief Ruby/Ruby on Rails intro
polarblau
3
150
Ruby Idioms
polarblau
3
540
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
【YAPC::Hakodate 2024】TypeScriptエンジニアが感じたPerlのここが面白い
kimitashoichi
1
490
Vitest Browser Mode への期待 / Vitest Browser Mode
odanado
PRO
1
1.4k
Honoの来た道とこれから
yusukebe
17
2.5k
Kubernetes for Data Engineers: Building Scalable, Reliable Data Pipelines
sucitw
1
110
画像でわかる北島直樹
naoki0917
0
140
Workflow automationによるインシデント原因調査の自動化
showwin
1
110
本編では話さない Zig の話
andpad
2
130
Piniaの現状と今後
waka292
5
1.1k
組織に自動テストを書く文化を根付かせる戦略(2024秋版) / Building Automated Test Culture 2024 Autumn Edition
twada
PRO
9
3.9k
(Deep|Web) Link support with expo-router
mrtry
0
190
Jakarta EE as Seen Trough the Lens of the ASF
ivargrimstad
0
950
offers_20241022_imakiire.pdf
imakurusu
1
140
Featured
See All Featured
Understanding Cognitive Biases in Performance Measurement
bluesmoon
26
1.4k
How to Create Impact in a Changing Tech Landscape [PerfNow 2023]
tammyeverts
46
2.1k
Documentation Writing (for coders)
carmenintech
65
4.4k
Building Your Own Lightsaber
phodgson
102
6k
Why Our Code Smells
bkeepers
PRO
334
57k
Put a Button on it: Removing Barriers to Going Fast.
kastner
58
3.5k
Unsuck your backbone
ammeep
668
57k
Build your cross-platform service in a week with App Engine
jlugia
229
18k
How to train your dragon (web standard)
notwaldorf
88
5.6k
[Rails World 2023 - Day 1 Closing Keynote] - The Magic of Rails
eileencodes
31
1.7k
Java REST API Framework Comparison - PWX 2021
mraible
PRO
28
7.7k
Building Better People: How to give real-time feedback that sticks.
wjessup
363
19k
Transcript
H W TO ASK QUESTIONS AND FIND THE RIGHT ANSWERS
You will f*ck up.
You will f*ck up. Every day.
And that’s okay.
And that’s okay. It’s the best part, really.
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses
your understanding.” Khalil Gibran
(A story of a button.)
Getting ahead in 5 easy steps
Admit that you have a problem. 1
Walk away. 2
Narrow it down. 3
A Is something broken? B Are you stuck?
- What does it take to trigger the problem? -
What is it that you want to achieve? - What happens instead? A
- What is it that you want to achieve? -
What is involved? - Where are you getting stuck? B
Research. 4
A “Do you have a name”? Check the documentation.
None
None
A + B Too fuzzy? — Use a search engine.
Don’t bother with site searches.
None
?
What does it take to trigger the problem? What is
it that you want to achieve? What happens instead? A WHEN THEN BUT
What is it that you want to achieve? What is
involved? Where are you getting stuck? B WHAT WITH HOW
- Leave your emotions at the door. - Formulate your
question with the answer in mind. - Be speci c in your terms. - Consider variations of your problem. - e order of the search terms matters. - Let the results guide your next question.
A + B Evaluate the results.
- How old is an answer? Check the date. -
How trustworthy is the source? - Explanation or just a code snippet? - Close, but no cigar? —Can you adapt an answer to your use case?
Ask for help. 5
None
(What is Stackover ow and how does it work?)
So, you think you’re ready to ask a question?
Have you exhausted all other means?
Did you search for similar questions?
Really?
Really? Alright then —
None
None
- Leave your emotions at the door. - Be speci
c, be brief.
None
None
None
- Leave your emotions at the door! - Provide all
necessary context. - Show that and what you’ve tried. - Be speci c, be brief. - Make it relevant to others. - Keep an open mind. - Be nice.
None
- Use as little tags a as possible. - Don’t
use buzzwords. - is is not a honey pot!
None
None
Now wait. Go, do something else. Be patient.
…
Found what you needed?
Found what you needed? Take some time to understand.
Comment. Ask follow–up questions. Be grateful.
…
Repeat. ∞
Experts Beginners
Experts Beginners Highly specialized questions Universal questions
Someone somewhere had the same problem than you before.
Give up.
Give up for the moment
Give up for the moment, but never for good.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Writing Ruby is a magical experience, but Ruby is not
magic.
Here’s something to get you started:
None
None
@polarblau