Since this is New Years and I have... had a few... but not too many since I have new son (3 weeks old who is sleeping hence why I'm writing this nonsense instead of wasting time at a party) I want to come to a more broader conclusion.
To ask a good question you have to know your audience! This includes asking a teacher, coworker, boss, a spouse and even a computer or cloud of computers such as Google.
You wouldn't want to ask or phrase the same questions that you ask Google that you ask your teacher (believe me I have googled things that are proper english and seem benign yet return horrible and embarrassing results... on the other hand I have googled pretty embarrassing things that I would never ask a human... usually medical).
Now the above probably seems pretty obvious to HNers but believe me it is surprising how globally it is not.
Also as the article does mention you do need to know who to talk to first but you also need to figure out who to ask followup questions.
I went to GaTech late 90s to early 2000s and there was a teacher there named Jim Greenlee (who for all extensive purposes was a bastard albeit effective bastard). Jim Greenlee was very much of the opinion that "human intervention should be almost always the last resort" and that it is better to learn and fail by doing.
Now I don't entirely agree with Jim but I have to say given the way things are improving with computers you really should learn how to ask them questions and probably first since they are increasingly becoming more effective at answering them.
We live in a time where you need to be effective with interfacing with both computers and humans.... Know your audience... and probably ask the computer first since they don't seem to have feelings... yet.
To ask a good question you have to know your audience! This includes asking a teacher, coworker, boss, a spouse and even a computer or cloud of computers such as Google. You wouldn't want to ask or phrase the same questions that you ask Google that you ask your teacher (believe me I have googled things that are proper english and seem benign yet return horrible and embarrassing results... on the other hand I have googled pretty embarrassing things that I would never ask a human... usually medical).
Now the above probably seems pretty obvious to HNers but believe me it is surprising how globally it is not.
Also as the article does mention you do need to know who to talk to first but you also need to figure out who to ask followup questions.
I went to GaTech late 90s to early 2000s and there was a teacher there named Jim Greenlee (who for all extensive purposes was a bastard albeit effective bastard). Jim Greenlee was very much of the opinion that "human intervention should be almost always the last resort" and that it is better to learn and fail by doing.
Now I don't entirely agree with Jim but I have to say given the way things are improving with computers you really should learn how to ask them questions and probably first since they are increasingly becoming more effective at answering them.
We live in a time where you need to be effective with interfacing with both computers and humans.... Know your audience... and probably ask the computer first since they don't seem to have feelings... yet.