Why asking stupid questions is good

In my school it was almost prohibited to ask questions. Teacher is always right and student has no right to speak up and question anything. That was not a surprise, that was a life. Then I became a FLEX (exchange program) finalist and studied in a US high school. That was the year that pretty much changed my life. Not only because I’ve learned English and found good friends, but also because I gained that expression that people are not afraid to ask questions. I won’t be moral and won’t lie to you that question “What language do you speak in Russia” was not in my “Top dumbest questions” list. Moreover, it still remains there.

However, now I understand that asking that question was very important. It was 2012, not everyone had Google in their smartphones.

Why is it so important for a person to ask a question? Regardless of some psychological aspects, I think there are three main reasons: first, it is because the person wants to know the answer to this question and, therefore, learns; second, because not asking can mean that something is assumed and that could be wrong; last, because asking a “why” question can change the universe.

Learning is a bottleneck

Curiosity makes us learn new stuff. Usually asking a question to a real person will work out better than ask Google or YouTube. Well, no, really I don’t encourage you to stop googling or youtubing. But I rather want you to stop being shy, lazy or rushed, stop thinking that you are stupid, take a deep breath and start asking questions which somebody might consider dumb. Because that will help you, and whatever you do, and the team which you are a member of.

“Assume makes an ass of u and me”

At work, before I question somebody, I usually stop for a moment and say to myself: “That will do good not only for me, but for my project also”. That is true, because, if a project manager (developer, product owner) doesn’t know something stupid, it could potentially become a disaster.

Let’s imagine a task which a team have to implement. A project manager explains the feature’s requirements: feature should be prepared for A/B testing, feature should have two scenarios A and B, scenario A starts at Welcome page, while scenario B starts on the next page.

The manager and the developer agreed that they understand everything. Three days later, a developer shows what was done: there is a feature flag prepared for the A/B testing. And there are two scenarios A, that starts on Welcome page and following that scenario B, which happened right after A. Technically, everything is done.

I think what happened here is that the developer didn’t ask just one question: “I should do the two scenarios one following the other, is it true?” Unfortunately, telepathy is not an art everyone masters and just asking yourself our your colleagueaquestion of confirmation would prevent the developer from wasting two days on doing the wrong thing.

Why ask “why”?

If I have time and if it is not something project specific, I usually google first. If google answers in a entangled manner and that puzzles me even more, that is a moment when I say to a developer: “I will ask a stupid question, but why is it necessary to make two different designs for iOS and Android apps?”

I suppose that an answer on this question can be the following: “Well, it is because iOS and Android have different guidelines and it is because iOS and Android have different gestures and… wait a second, but do we really need them to be that different?”

For example, answering the “Why iOS and Android apps have to be different”, we understood that the application is designed for paramedics that work on different ambulances and each ambulance might have an Android or and iOS phone/tablet. In this case, it might be better to design applications as similar as possible and not follow some or most design guidelines, because it is important that our user spends the least amount of time as possible searching for a particular view, because there is a real patient in the ambulance.

I remember, after being asked about native language in Russia, I puzzled for a second. I actually started to think where I should start my answer from. Should it be just one world, two worlds or a short description of how Russia is big and how there are many native languages like Tatar, Komi…

Same happens at work, especially at work connected with software development. There are so many obvious things that most people knows an answer to, but only those who start asking stupid questions are changing the world. Or at least the software that is built.

P.S. after choosing the first and third images, I realized that this article is less about questions and more about donkeys. Hope you enjoyed both.

Why asking stupid questions is good

Why asking stupid questions is good

Learning is a bottleneck

“Assume makes an ass of u and me”

Why ask “why”?

Recommend

The importance of asking awkward questions

Stop Apologizing for Asking Questions

Questions I'm asking in interviews

Asking good questions is hard (but worth it)

Asking questions is a superpower

Are we asking the right questions?

The Gift of Asking Stupid Questions | Voice of the DBA

The Top 5 Questions CEOs Should be asking about Cybersecurity

Product design interview questions you should be asking | FullStory

Asking Stupid Questions

About Joyk