Comments on: On Asking Questions

By: Why I Read All The Time And How You Can Too -- Jarkko Laine - Insanely interested

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:32:32 +0000

[...] my backpack, I carry two books: The Aladdin Factor which talks about the power of asking (I just finished this one last week so I’ll have to replace it with something else soon) and [...]

By: Dora

Dora — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:21:39 +0000

That’s funny, professors back home want to know only what students remember from the books they have written… or I just happened to be in a very bad environment.

I think a lot depends on the nature of your question. And the nature of the answer you are seeking. How much effort/money/time/whatever it takes for the questioned to reply, or how much of these he already invested to find his own answers.

Obviously, you cannot receive “No” to an open-ended question…

Do you ask questions from yourself?

By: Lala

Lala — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:58:53 +0000

The professors do know a lot of things and it’s always worth asking them!

I think the reason to that is that they have been insanely interested in what they are doing and have asked many many questions themselves.

By: Jarkko

Jarkko — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:36:17 +0000

Hi Lala! Nice to hear from you also through this forum :)

That’s a good point – but it brings up the question if there would be something the students could ask from the professors. What do you think?

By: Lala

Lala — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:13:52 +0000

Hei Jarkko! This is almost the first time I read your blog. Pity that I know your son better than you!

Science is all about asking questions.

(At least at our department) professors are those who ask the questions. Students are those who answer them. And then the professors get their names to good articles (written by the students) to famous journals.

It has something in common with blogging then, when some people revise the articles and give comments to them. And that’s how we get more & better knowledge.

Nice blog. And oh, you’re famous! ;)

-Lala, “the mother of Oskari”

By: Jarkko

Jarkko — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:00:28 +0000

Hey James, thanks for the reminder! I’m off to install the subscribe to comments plugin right away :)

…15 minutes later: Done. Feel free to subscribe to comments!

By: James Chartrand - Web Content Writer Tips

James Chartrand - Web Content Writer Tips — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 12:17:43 +0000

Hm, I missed a ton of great discussion. Where’s your “Subscribe to Comments” option, Jarkko?

By: Joshua Clanton - Design for the WEB » Blog Archive » Linklist: Asking Questions, CSS Resets, and the Power of Procrastination

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:02:41 +0000

[...] On Asking Questions — Jarkko Laine – Insanely interested If you’re like me and hesitate to ask for things from other people, you need to read this post. [...]

By: Dren

Dren — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:42:41 +0000

‘Asking for wisdom’ – very true! Probably it is one of those questions that no book can really give the answer you are looking for, specially because there are so many ‘wisdoms’ as there are people that walked on this planet.

So I believe that this is the case where we have a win-win situation (that is if you choose to pose the question). You win because you want to hear the answer, and the other party – well I know no person that wouldn’t be happy to share his/her wisdom and ‘lessons learned in life’.

Ah, this made me remember my grandma and all the stories she shared with me… :)

By: Jarkko

Jarkko — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:24:02 +0000

@Dren: That’s a great question!

In my post I was thinking only about the first type of asking, which I guess I could then again divide into two parts:

1) Asking for wisdom: Asking people to share their life stories and things they have learned through them. This will give the asker a deeper insight on life, and let him/her hear stories that aren’t written in books. So it’s something you have to ask in order to find out the answer.

2) Asking for help: By this I mean something like asking someone to write a blog post for you, asking if you they want to buy your products, and so on…

The third kind of asking would then be what you present it your comment. I guess it’s sometimes hard to distinguish that from the first type, the line between a fact and a piece of wisdom isn’t always clear…

Just like you, I also struggle with this a bit. It depends a lot on the person whether I ask the question or not: some people enjoy asking quick questions like these, but many people find them a bit annoying. So, if the person is really busy, I’ll just find out the answer myself.

But I don’t know if this is the best way to handle this issue. What do you think? Anyone? :)