{"id":1012,"date":"2016-12-09T09:53:16","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T17:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2017-03-27T14:58:12","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T21:58:12","slug":"asking-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/asking-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Asking Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I love reading twitter after I give a talk, because I can review what I said and make sure I agree with it (I never know what will come out of my mouth when I\u2019m on a stage in front of people \u2013 it\u2019s part of my presentation style). At TestBash in Philadelphia, I (apparently) said:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;Don&#8217;t be afraid to speak up and don&#8217;t be afraid to be wrong!!!&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/alanpage\">@alanpage<\/a> Great reminder for testers!!! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/testbash?src=hash\">#testbash<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 tony g (@tgtigger77) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tgtigger77\/status\/797116590705799170\">November 11, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I said the above at the end of a story where I also referenced Richard Feynman\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/tools.jiscinfonet.ac.uk\/downloads\/lsd\/feynman.pdf\">story about being afraid to ask a question<\/a>, asking anyway, and finding a \u201cbug\u201d (in this case, a problem resulting from a stuck valve). If you\u2019re a tester, and haven\u2019t read Feynman, you are really missing out on the stories of a great systems thinker. In this story, Feynman asks a question he is almost too afraid to ask, and the answer is, \u201c\u2026<em> &#8216;you&#8217;re absolutely right, sir<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In my day job, I have a shallow view of a big and complex product. I review <em>some<\/em> code, I look at <em>some<\/em> of the specifications and designs, and I go to <em>some<\/em> architecture meetings. I know enough to know that I don\u2019t know most things, so I ask questions when I\u2019m confused.<\/p>\n<p>Inevitably (and most recently, just a few weeks ago), I\u2019ll ask a question that makes me look smart despite my lack of knowledge. In this case, I happened to look at a code review, and was curious how the feature and flow worked. I reviewed every line, but it still wasn\u2019t clear how one part of the flow worked. I dug for a while, but all I did was feel dumb about not being able to figure it out. As a last resort, I added a comment to the code saying, \u201cIt\u2019s not clear to me exactly how [this flow] works, do you mind swinging by my desk and walking me through it so I understand it better?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The response in the code review? \u2018&#8217;\u201d<em>you\u2019re absolutely right \u2013 great catch!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I wouldn\u2019t bother telling the story if this was a one time thing, but it happens all the time. I try to learn, and ask questions when my learning is (or feels) blocked. Most of the time, I merely learn, but sometimes, I inadvertently find something interesting. Either way, if you\u2019re passionate about learning (and every knowledge worker should be), then always ask questions if you need clarification or more understanding \u2013 you may just be right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love reading twitter after I give a talk, because I can review what I said and make sure I agree with it (I never know what will come out of my mouth when I\u2019m on a stage in front of people \u2013 it\u2019s part of my presentation style). At TestBash in Philadelphia, I (apparently)&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}