<story><title>Ask stupid questions as a new software developer</title><url>https://www.nikitakazakov.com/ask-stupid-questions-as-software-developer</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mceachen</author><text>Please ask me any question, regardless of how dumb you think it will make you look, after you&amp;#x27;ve spent at least 5 minutes trying to answer it yourself.&lt;p&gt;Bonus Points if you summarize your quick research efforts.&lt;p&gt;Extra Bonus Points if this leads to more questions.&lt;p&gt;(Caveat emptor: _many_ engineers are decidedly antisocial, but if you show that you did prior research before asking, you&amp;#x27;re showing to them that you value their time as much as your own, and there&amp;#x27;s a better chance that they will be receptive to collaboration.)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>onion2k</author><text>Very often you won&amp;#x27;t get that upfront research because juniors don&amp;#x27;t have the knowledge necessary to even start looking for themselves. Because you expect them to come to you with evidence before they ask you, your devs will just avoid asking you and spend hours wasting time instead. Any minimum requirements are a barrier. Barriers are bad for learning.&lt;p&gt;You need to welcome questions even from people who have apparently done no research at all, or juniors will always worry that you&amp;#x27;ll accuse them of not doing the &amp;quot;necessary&amp;quot; work up front. If you&amp;#x27;re kind and approachable, and you don&amp;#x27;t tell people off for failing to meet your minimum requirements, you can guide them to finding it themselves.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask stupid questions as a new software developer</title><url>https://www.nikitakazakov.com/ask-stupid-questions-as-software-developer</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mceachen</author><text>Please ask me any question, regardless of how dumb you think it will make you look, after you&amp;#x27;ve spent at least 5 minutes trying to answer it yourself.&lt;p&gt;Bonus Points if you summarize your quick research efforts.&lt;p&gt;Extra Bonus Points if this leads to more questions.&lt;p&gt;(Caveat emptor: _many_ engineers are decidedly antisocial, but if you show that you did prior research before asking, you&amp;#x27;re showing to them that you value their time as much as your own, and there&amp;#x27;s a better chance that they will be receptive to collaboration.)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>moffkalast</author><text>This is a problem during lectures. If you ask immediately you may end up looking entirely stupid, but if you spend a few minutes thinking about it the topic already moves from it so you can no longer ask lol.</text></comment>