Straight to the point when you ask question

Friday, May 26. 2006

Straight to the point when you ask question

I just got a call from my manager asking "are you familiar with garbage collection?". I believe in most cases people would answer "no" as I did. But the point here is did my manager expect to know if I'm familiar with garbage collection? Obviously not. He was just trying to get help on some Java relevant problems at client place. So, in that case, I'd much appreciate if he could tell me the problem right away I picked up the call or send me some findings.
Yesterday, when I was scratching my head fixing a bug, a colleague of mine came over to my place elaborating a pretty long story before actually telling me what problem he's facing. Immediately I felt offended and said ("said" isn't actually a proper word to use): "can you straight to the point?"
I have a friend I communicate with through MSN almost everyday. He likes to send me a "hey" before saying anything more as he's expecting me to acknowledge. Why must I give a "yes?" then only can get his question?
I'm wondering why people ask question like I mentioned.

Posted by Steven Yong in non-computer at 08:51 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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"Sei-lo" (Cantonese for "die-lo")

I'm a bit long-winded, but I have two words, I've learnt a long time ago - *root cause*.

Perhaps a tip. 1st, describe the error message you got (message details, stacktrace), then, if possible where you suspect this thing has happened.

Someone asked me what was an "Invalid SOAP envelope" error message meant. I asked, "what's the full exception?", the person still wasn't able to describe to me the full error message she got.

So, I got a bit fed up and told her, please print out the stacktrace, the entire SOAP message you tried to send over and please please, don't mix up the error message with the app server's log... (use some other log-la...)

No answer yet...

.. I probably scared her...

#1 Angie Tan (Homepage) on 2006-05-26 11:42 (Reply)

I think its more of a courtesy. Coz if the person helping is not free, then just being asked the question puts him in a awkard and annoying position.

#2 Veena (Homepage) on 2006-05-26 14:20 (Reply)

I can still say I'm not free when I see your question. What's the point of telling "I'm busy" when I'm busy? If I'm only free for one question, you'd have missed the chance.

#2.1 steven (Homepage) on 2006-05-27 10:33 (Reply)

I always get frustrated when people (be it customer, colleague, boss etc) come to me and just said "the application/function you did got problem" and full stop - without any additional information and expect me to give a response.

#3 MK on 2006-05-26 14:35 (Reply)

people don't always mean they will let you escape for the question if you reply that you aren't free. they just trying to be polite, though I think this kind of politeness is annoying.

#3.1 steven (Homepage) on 2006-05-27 10:36 (Reply)

my opinion...

http://key8297.blogspot.com/2006/05/blog-post_26.html

#4 key on 2006-05-26 19:13 (Reply)

if your question can wait, or it can be discarded if i'm not free at the moment, why should it be sent via instant messaging software?

#4.1 steven (Homepage) on 2006-05-27 10:41 (Reply)

"dinner tonight?"
"movie on coming wednesday?"
"travel next month?"

do u think we should consider this type of message as urgent message or we cant wait for the answer?
but i believe most of the person like me will still use instant messenger instead of send email out to ask this type of question.

furthermore, i think the "instant" from "instant messenger" here means you can send and receive message "instantly" with the software and this is human factor excluded.

or may be we can sue Microsoft since we cant get instant reply from their MSN instant messenger.

#4.1.1 key on 2006-05-28 23:35 (Reply)

of course those questions are always being sent via IM, because most people expect instant reply, it doesn't matter the reply is "yes", "no" or "let you know later".

#4.1.1.1 steven (Homepage) on 2006-05-29 09:03 (Reply)

I always use "your name...", "haloo....", "Hi.." to start the conversation in IM. You may ask me why. Easy. The reason I am doing that is just to be more polite. My idealogy is that if you are free, you will reply "yes?", "anything?" or something else that indicate you are ready to listen. Or maybe if you are busy, you may just ignore the msg. I dont get angry when ppl dont reply, easily because that every person got their own things to do, and you may not be free to answer my question right now.

Why didnt I go straight to the point? It is just a way of being more polite in conversation. IM is a way of talking without the "voice". If suddenly someone just approach you and say "Hey, you program doesnt work!" or "What is this?", dont you think that this is more annoying than "Hi" or "hello"?

By the way, I personally dont like to ask the same question to two different person. It will make the 1st person to feel that he is "not so good" or "why when you ask me, you ask others too? Is it that I am not good?". So normally I will just use something polite to see whether you are ready to answer my question or not.

#5 gary on 2006-05-30 10:08 (Reply)

of course no one will be happy to see "what's this?!" or "your program doesn't work!". why can't you ask like "hi steven, what is the blah blah blah" or "good morning gary, there's a problem saying blah blah blah"? one more thing, by giving a "yes?" does only mean i was listening to your previous "hi", it doesn't mean i will sure be listening your subsequent questions.

#5.1 steven (Homepage) on 2006-05-30 10:20 (Reply)

mmm... It does make sense when you say it that way. Then I should say that different person got different point of view on this.

#5.1.1 Gary on 2006-05-30 19:27 (Reply)

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