Wisdom of inquiry-Eric Steven Raymond

How to ask questions the smart way)

Author: Eric Steven Raymond

In the hacker's world, the answers to your technical questions depend largely on the way you ask and the difficulty of solving the problem, "Wisdom of Inquiry" this article will teach you how to ask questions to be more likely to receive satisfactory answers. This article is very popular and reproduced on the front pages of major technical forums.

 

English version:
Http://www.catb.org /~ ESR/FAQs/smart-questions.html

Chinese version:
Http://www.wapm.cn/smart-questions/smart-questions-zh.html

=== Mindmap ===

 

(Source)

 

=== Excerpt ===

The first thing that needs to be understood is that hackers like difficulties and stimulate thinking. If this is not the case, we will not write this article. If you can give us an interesting question to chew on, we will appreciate it. A good question is a kind of encouragement and gift that helps us develop our cognition and reveal questions that are not noticed or imagined. In a hacker,Good question!"Is a very warm and sincere approval.

 

We hate those who do not want to think or do their homework before asking questions. This kind of person is like a bottomless time-they only know what to ask, don't want to pay, they waste time, they can be used for other more interesting questions or more worthy of answering. We call this person"Loser)"(For historical reasons, we sometimes spell" loser "as"Lusers".)

 

Most of us are volunteers who sometimes fail to answer questions by taking time out of our busy lives. Therefore, we will filter out questions without mercy, especially those that seem to be rejected by the losers, so that we can more effectively leave the answer time to those winners.

 

 

before asking a question, do the following before sending a technical question via email, newsgroup, or forum:

1. search for the answer in the historical document of the Forum you are about to ask

2. Search for the Internet to find the answer

3. read the manual to find the answer

4. Read "FAQ) to find the answer

5. try your own check or test to find the answer

6. ask a knowledgeable friend to find the answer

7. If You Are A Program member, read Source Code to find the answer

When you ask a question, please first indicate that you have done the above, which will help you build your impression that you are not a parasite and are wasting others' time. It is better to express your storyWhat I learned We like to answer those who show that they can learn from the answer.

 

Even if there is no result, the following sentence is provided when the contact list or newsgroup asks for help:" I searched the following sentence in Google but did not find anything useful. "Is also a good thing, at least it indicates what help the search engine cannot provide. Linking search keywords with your problems and possible solutions also helps guide other people with similar problems.

 

Rashly asked questions can only be answered rashly, or not at all. When you ask a question, the more you think and try to solve your own problems before that, the more likely you are to get real help.

 

Never assume you Qualified  To be answered. You are not qualified to pay for this service. If you can ask questions about content, fun, and stimulating thinking-the questions you can undoubtedly askCommunityContribute your experience, not just the question of passively asking you to acquire knowledge from others. You will "earn" the answer.

 

The theme is a golden opportunity for you to attract the attention of qualified experts within 50 or less words. Please help me "(Not to mention the" Please help me !!!! ", Such theme messages will be deleted in a reflective manner) and so on. Do not use your painful depth to impress us. On the contrary, use a very concise description of the problem in this space.

 

 

Correct spelling, punctuation, and case. Do not set"Its"Obfuscation as"It's","Loose"Into"Lose"OrDiscrete"Into"Discreet". Do not use uppercase letters in all cases. This can be regarded as rude and loud (all lowercase letters are not good because they are not easy to read. Alan Cox [Note: A famous hacker, an important participant in the Linux Kernel] may be able to do this, but you cannot .)

In general, if you write like a half-illiterate idiot, most of them will be ignored. Also, do not use the short form in instant messaging. For example, simplifying "you" to "U" will make you look like a half-illiterate fool to save secondary keys. Worse, if a child is like a child, it is definitely looking for death. No one will care about you (or at most give you a lot of criticism and sarcasm ).

 

Problem description should be accurate and informative

 

• Describes the symptoms carefully and clearly

• Describe the environment where the problem occurs (host, operating system, application, any related), provide the distribution and version number of the seller (for example:"Fedora Core 7","Slackware 9.1)

• Describe the research and understanding that has been done before the question.

• Describes the diagnostic steps taken to determine the problem before the question.

• Describes any recent changes to computer or software configurations.

• If possible, it provides methods to reproduce problems in a controllable environment.

 

Make the best effort to predict the problems that hackers will raise and prepare answers in advance.If you thinkCodeIf there is a problem, it is particularly important to provide hackers with methods to reproduce the problem in a controllable environment. When you do this, the possibility of getting useful and timely replies will be greatly increased.

 

Quietly, you cannot do your own homework.

 

 

The boundless problem is often seen as a bottomless period of time without explicit restrictions.The people most likely to give you answers are usually the busiest people (if they have done too much work) who are extremely sensitive to endless periods of time, so they also tend to hate those questions.

You are more likely to get a useful response if you specify what you want the responder to do (for example, give directions, send code, check patches, or otherwise. This allows them to concentrate and indirectly set the time and energy they need to help you. This is good.

Do not mark the problem as "urgent", even if it is true for you

 

After the problem is solved, append a message to all the people who have helped, so that they can know how the problem is solved and thank you again.