Questions

Today, we discuss the topic of “Questions”; what they are and how they work.

It’s after 6 consecutive calls from the same person asking the same question today that I decided to write this post. Clearly, some people are miss using and abusing the power of the Question.

What is “Question”?

ques·tion

/ˈkwɛstʃən/ Show Spelled[kwes-chuhn] 

noun

1.

a sentence in an interrogative form, addressed to someone in order to get information in reply.

There are other definitions but for the purpose of this post, we will focus on the form that is mostly concerned with by the Jeopardy crew.

In school, one of my professors had wisely said “In university, we don’t teach you anything except how to learn.” and what better way to learn than to ask well phrased questions?

1. Think “is this really a question I’m asking?”
   A lot of the times, you are not really asking a question. Meaning, if you were provided the actual answer to your question you would not have received your desired results.

   i.e.
   Q: Can you reset my password?
   A: Yes.
   Q: … *pause* Can you actually reset my password?
   A: Yes.
   … etc etc.

   Meanwhile, you’re both sitting there and no password has been reset.

   When you’re requesting a service, as polite as it might be (and we generally get what you’re saying) you shouldn’t phrase it in the form of a question.

   Instead, say: “Please reset my password.”. It is polite and you get what you want.

2. Know who to ask
   The silliest thing about asking questions is directing the question at a random target and hoping you’ll get the right answers. That’s like asking your car mechanic what your mother’s birthday is, or worse, asking your cat what the 15th decimal of Pi is.

   Knowing who to ask your questions to is half of the battle. In the age of technology, the best “person” to ask almost any question would be Google. If you need a how-to, currenty conversion, general trivia, Google is your tool. If you don’t use Google first, you’ll likely end up sounding like a tool. So, use Google.

3. Know what to ask
   Now that you’ve figured out your brother or dad might know your mother’s birthday better than your car mechanic, you should now ask the question properly. Questions like “What is mom’s date-ma-bob?” is not usually helpful and only delays you from getting what you really want.

   Take my recent experience for example:
   Caller: I’m missing the address thingy when I send a new email.
   Me: What address thingy? The address bar?
   Caller: No.
   Me: The “To” field where you would normally input the recipient’s address?
   Caller: No.
   Me: What address thingy are you missing?
   Caller: You know when you try to send a new email, your name and address shows up?
   Me: You mean your signature?
   Caller: Sure. I don’t know what YOU call it.
   Me: OK. It’s called the Signature and I’ll show you how to reset it.
   Caller: OK I don’t care what it is called.

   …. hmm.. lets step back and ponder this for a second:
   
   Senario:
   You were baby sitting your cousin twice removed when he goes missing. Calling 911 you try to file a missing persons report.

   Caller: I’m missing a human thingy
   Police: What human thingy? A body part? Are you hurt?
   Caller: No.
   Police: Are you missing a human?
   Caller: Sure.
   Police: What’s the person’s name?
   Caller: I don’t know what YOU would call it.

   At this point in time.. the police probably isn’t very willing to assist you.

   Basically, how can you ask for help on something when you don’t know what you need help with?

So, those are my 3 tips on asking questions. Let me know if you have any further tips/tricks or stories you’d like to share in the comments.