Who you ask shapes what you ask

This is the final post in my short series on asking good questions.  In it, we’ll look at how failing to adapt your question to the expert you are addressing, can produce frustratingly unhelpful answers.

Before we dive in, let’s start with a recap of the story so far.

• In my first post, I focused on the expert-answerer world view, where a question from a novice is transformed into the thing the expert chooses to answer. That transformation allows the expert to refine the question and predict how useful the answer will be.

• In my second post, I explored how essentially bizarre it is to ask a question and get an answer to begin with. I borrowed from game theory to model the information each party has, and the “game” to work together to exchange that information.

• In my third post, I offered some ideas of how to define good questions. The biggest challenge is usually that the questioner lacks knowledge to guide them in shaping their question.

In this last post I want to highlight one other thing novices often fail to do – think about the specific expertise the other person has, and then adjust their question to get the most useful answer.

If you only have one question, the common strategy of just asking everyone the same question almost makes sense. You have one question, you run into a person, maybe they know the answer!

Unfortunately, there are typically many related questions you want to have answered, plus hundreds of other unrelated questions. If you stop and think for a moment, even a novice can recognize some questions don’t fit the expert standing in front of them.

A good example of this is when a student asks a professor for help. Ask the professor for the answer to a homework problem, and they will not give it to you. Ask them how to solve a problem, and they’ll give you a lot more guidance. Tell them what you’ve tried and what doesn’t seem to be working, and you’ll get even better help.

Certain structured environments have codified these lessons. Stack overflow cultivated a culture of harsh answers if someone hasn’t checked for similar posts first or doesn’t give enough background. https://letmegooglethat.com/ is a similarly snarky response to not thinking about how you could get your own answer to a question first.

Even after school, some people don’t quite learn the lessons. It still feels to them like the answer is the thing they’re after, and the journey to get it is just a waste of time, so they look for whatever short cuts they can.

Thinking about which specific question to ask this specific unique person in front of you is also more work. You have to use executive function skills like planning and perspective-taking to figure out what you should ask.

My take is that this whole journey is worth it. Without thinking carefully about the questions you want answered, the answers have a lot less meaning, and they may not be useful. And if they don’t mean anything, why even ask them?