Kunal Mahajan: Dev BootCamp
"The tale of my journey on becoming a Junior Web Developer..."
DBC-Cultural Blog:
Date: 08.31.15
Entry #: 8
Commentary:
Today, I wanted to write about a topic that I feel can help anybody reading this post, tremendously in any field or situation. We all can agree that communication is the livelyhood in which the world operates, and without good communication every situation can become utter chaos. Nowadays, social media plays a huge role in conveying ideas, demonstrating concepts or simply asking questions in which we may need guidance; the latter, becomes useful IF, (and only IF) proper guidelines are being met.
Imagine, you're travelling across your city not knowing exactly where you are and not knowing the exact address of where you're trying to reach. How would you be able to define the start/stop positioning even if you had access to a GPS, (assuming it can't find you) and reach the destination in a timely manner? Details. Details are the key concept in addressing anything that you want a specific result from.
During Phase 0 at DBC, we used Google+ as a portal to view key information about our curriculum, post questions in appropriate sub-forums, and read each others' comments. I often found myself running into posts by students in which there were very few responses and I always asked, "Why is it when I post a question I am able to get prompt replies, whereas some have nearly zero replies hours afterwards?" It was pretty obvious...details. Upon closer review, those who had few responses generally left very few details for others to comment on; whether it was posted in the wrong sub-forum, left out details about what/where/when (with timezones), or simply posted at an unusually late hour. By contrast, I always took the extra minute or two to post in the correct directory a question that answered the (5) W's of question asking: *WHO/*WHAT/*WHERE/*WHEN/*WHY (*if applicable) and almost always within (10) minutes of my orginal post, I'd have an comment/answer.
The point that I'm trying to emphasize is there are MILLIONS of people on the internet, and even more resources that one can digest. Almost always, the problem isn't the question being asked, it's HOW the question is formulated for the end-user. Being keen to details, stating exactly WHAT it is you have a question/comment/concern about, WHEN you plan on working with/on it -with a relative timezone, and/or WHERE you plan on working with/on it with specifics will ensure that your answer will be addressed in a timely fashion.
...now go and implement your newfound knowledge and see how much easier asking questions becomes!