- So let's talk about the right and wrong way
to ask a technical question in your journey
to become a programmer, and even after
you are working as a full-time programmer.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Welcome back, my name is Tim Buchalka
with another programming tip of the day,
and we're talking about asking technical questions.
And this is something that you'll
need to do a lot in your journey
to become a programmer, and also when
you are a programmer, because programming
and even when you get to the stage
of working as a programmer, you're always learning.
So you're always asking questions.
You're asking questions to yourself.
You're asking questions to others,
and then you might be even online
and looking for answers to questions.
So you need to frame your questions the right way
to maximise the information that will come back to you.
And why I'm bringing this up is I want to show you
an example of a typical,
I wouldn't say it's typical,
but for someone who hasn't done much programming
or someone who's just learning how to programme,
here's a sample question.
Now, I don't wanna go into details
and I'm certainly not trying to cast any negativity
on the person who's asked this question,
because we don't know until we've actually learned,
but this type of question is bad,
and the reason is it doesn't really
give any context, it doesn't give you any information,
and it's very hard to answer.
It's really hasn't got enough information,
so if you ask a question in a forum,
you ask a question in a Q and A section
of a typical Udemy course or one of my courses,
more than likely someone won't be able
to provide an answer, because you haven't
given the necessary information.
So try and be as specific as you can.
And this is important for a lot of reasons.
Firstly for yourself.
If you go through the process and try and be specific,
instead of saying, things aren't working,
be specific and say what isn't working,
provide a screenshot, go into details
of what you've tried.
The whole process of framing that question
and topping it up may well result
in you figuring out the answer,
and that will happen a lot when you're learning
how to programme, and the reason is
that you're putting some critical thought
into that question.
And by doing that, you're analysing the problem
in more detail, and it can lead to you
actually solving the problem.
So that's number one.
It's very important to do that,
to try and see whether you can solve it,
but it also makes life easier for the person
who's trying to answer.
And whether that's someone who's on a forum
or who's donating their time freely,
or whether it's someone in a Q and A section of a course
who's got hundreds of questions to answer,
if you can be as specific as possible,
they can get back to you and answer
in a more timely manner, because they've got
the information they need to answer.
And what's gonna happen if you provide
a typical question that's very generic
like the one that I showed you earlier?
You're gonna get someone to come back,
or have to come back and say, I can't help you.
Can you provide more information?
So, it's wasteful of everyone's time.
So, try and be as specific as you can,
because that's really gonna help you
in your journey to become a programmer.
But also, when you start programming,
invariably you'll be working with a team
of other programmers, and if you're
starting out in your first programming job,
there'll probably be a senior programmer
who you'll need to, you refer to a team lead
or someone who is supervising your work
or basically someone who's in charge.
And you'll need to ask them questions,
and you wanna be very mindful and respectful
of their time as well, and ask questions
that go through what you've tried first,
and you'll certainly win points by doing that,
being as specific as you can.
Because look, we've all got the same amount of hours
available to us, so if you can try and be mindful
of someone else's time, save their time,
they're gonna be appreciative of what you've done
and try and help you out more.
So certainly think about that.
Frame your questions, provide as much detail as possible.
Screenshots, et cetera, are very useful,
but also what you've tried and even any information
that you think may be the problem.
And that can be a way to solve the problem yourself,
but also help people help you.
All righty, so I hope that helped.
If you've got any questions,
feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
If you're ready to look at the next tip,
click on up here and you can check that out.
If you're interested in coding specific programming videos,
click on the link in the bottom left hand corner.
Consider subscribing by clicking on the link up here,
and I'll see you soon.