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Don't ask to ask1

You may have been sent this document because you asked to ask a question, such as:

You: Can someone message me about React Native?
You: Can anyone help me with Expo Updates?
You: Does anyone know about Swift UI with Expo?

These questions aren't particularly productive and don't often lead to others being able to help you.

Tip

tl;dr: don't ask "Does anyone know about <topic>?", but rather ask:

  • "How do I solve <problem> given <context>?"
  • "Why is <problem> occurring when I do <action>?"
  • "What do I do when I see <issue>, after I've done <context>?"

There are plenty of reasons why people who otherwise would help you, may not be able to or may not commit to replying to you. If you ask to ask, you're omitting information about your problem or question, since you haven't formalized it. You are instead asking for something more broad and a large commitment from strangers.

Questions like the above cause conflict and problems because they:

  • ask others to take responsibility to take the lead
  • question people's confidence and knowledge
  • wall out people who might be able to answer your question
  • ask for someone's undivided attention in real time
  • prompt people to commit to interviewing you to figure out your real question
  • obscure any replies, which prevents it from being useful to other people

Others might see this as you not having done the work to diagnose your problem - and conclude that if you didn't make any effort, why should they now have to put in all the work to help solve the problem for you.

Instead, take the time to form a question please.

The solution to the problem is not to ask to ask, but just to ask. Someone may see your question, and if they have an idea or recognize the problem, you are much more likely to get a reply.

If you're not sure what to ask, describe your issue.

For example:

Can someone help me with <topic>?
I'm seeing <problem>, I've tried <solution>,
but instead of <expected>, I get <symptom>.

Instead of leaving a message that only asks about a subject or topic, try describing your issue, even if you don't know what question to ask. If people recognize your problem or are interested in it, they are much more likely to help you, than if you had asked to ask.

Footnotes

  1. This document was inspired by https://dontasktoask.com/ ↩