A guy at a coffee shop in Denver gave me the best advice about asking questions

Honestly, I was working on a project at this cafe on Colfax last month, totally stuck on a problem. This older guy at the next table saw me looking upset and just said, 'The question you ask decides the answer you get.' He told me he used to be a teacher and saw people ask vague things like 'why is this hard?' and get nowhere. He said to always make your question point to a real action, like 'what is the first step to fix this error message?' instead. It changed how I post here. I write my questions way clearer now and get way better help. Has anyone else had a simple tip totally change how you ask for things?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thomas18d ago

Real action" questions are a total game changer for me too.

brooke52018d ago

Totally, they cut through all the overthinking. Started using them in meetings and it actually gets people moving lol.

reese_lee297d ago

Switched to asking "what's the next tiny step" with my team and it unblocks projects instantly. We went from talking about a report for weeks to having a first draft in two days. How do you guys handle it when someone still tries to overcomplicate things?