How to ask for help

Asking for Help

I love helping others. Working to support individuals, communities, and teams is what drives me.

While my DM’s are open and I’m always happy to help, I need to triage the incoming help requests and sometimes I just don’t have the time to respond to all of them.

In order to improve the chance of getting a response, I’ve written up a quick guide on how to ask me for help.

Characteristics of a good question

This section is largely copied from Isha Sood. Why reinvent the wheel, y’know?

If I had an hour to solve a problem, and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes. - Albert Einstein

1. Clear

A good question is framed in a clear, easily understandable language, without any vagueness. I should understand what is wanted from the question even when I don’t know the answer to it.

A good question is usually crisp and concise. It omits any unnecessary information that requires me to spend time understanding it correctly. The idea is not to tell a story but to communicate the problem.

3. Supported

A good question is asked in context and is supported by documents, links, or examples that provide context and additional help with understanding or solving the problem.

Practically, this means you should create an issue in the appropriate project or create an example repository that can be easily pulled down.

For events

Here’s my speaker bio. You can use email to follow up with me, but unless I’m expecting mail, I prefer to use Twitter.

For companies

Message me on Twitter. I’m available for IC work, schedule permitting. In addition to consulting, I’m also available to teach workshops.