Art of a Good Question
“There are no bad questions.” It’s a popular saying in tech. The intent is good: we want to create psychological safety and lower the barrier for juniors asking for help. But while there may be no bad intentions behind a question, there are certainly poorly framed ones. These aren’t bad because the problem is simple; they are bad because the thinking behind them is incomplete. I was reminded of this recently in a DevOps community chat. Someone asked for help with a query they were stuck on. No context. No constraints. No indication of the end goal. People asked for clarification, but the follow-ups added little. Eventually, the thread just died. ...