[wplug] cyrus-imapd / postfix / ???

[Christopher DeMarco]

On Fri, Aug 19, 2005 at 04:00:32PM -0400, Chester R. Hosey wrote:

> I find that it's much easier for myself and those providing me with
> some help to start by describing my problem and letting them review
> my line of thinking.

The most-useful benefit of ESR's document (and the approach which it
prescribes) is that oftentimes simplistic questions are a reflection
of the questioner's lack of understanding *what he's asking about*.

Just yesterday I was embarrassed on IRC when I was asking #python
about a particular feature of mod_python, and the guy I was talking to
asked me a question which immediately turned on a light bulb in my
mind - the lightbulb illuminated a part of the map that *I'd not yet
filled in*.  I had a mental picture of what I wanted to accomplish,
but there was a big bubble drawn labeled "Magic Happens Here".  When
you set out to solve a problem which you haven't clearly defined, you
will have a hard time asking the right questions.

ESR's prescription is intended to foster good problem-solving habits,
the first of which is to clearly define WHAT you have, HOW it works,
WHAT you expect and HOW the reality differs from your expectation.
What often comes off as unwillingness to help is an [often ascerbic]
instance of the query "Describe EXACTLY what you have, what you did,
what happens and what you want to be different".

The situation is analogous to walking into a mental health
professional's office and saying "I feel bad".  Such a general symptom
can't even be approached; the questioner must probe (heh) to map not
only the symptoms, but their situation within the patient's whole -

bad == suicidal? jittery? paranoid? intimidated?  any past history of
such conditions? family predisposition?

If, in my research yesterday, I'd had a clear picture in my own mind,
I would have encountered the "Magic Happens Here" label and realized
that I stood a better chance of understanding HOW to accomplish my
goal once I fully understood WHAT to accomplish.  

The highest-level rephrasing of ESR's "Asking Questions" thesis is
this:

Ask the question in the right way, and the answer is implicit in the
question.  It's a profound truth, and imposes a weighty workload on
the questioner - so no wonder that netizens often seem taken aback at
a questioner who wants THEM to do all the work of defining the
question.

"I had an uncle who thought he was Saint Jerome..."


-- 
Christopher DeMarco <cmd at alephant.net>
Alephant Systems (http://alephant.net)
PGP public key at http://pgp.alephant.net
+1 412 708 9660
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