This is what I believe to be a smart question
The reason that this os a smart question is because the user who asked the question specifies what program he is using and what does not work in his program. He has a feeling about what is going on but he is not sure so he has come to the community for assistance. He states what actions he has done to try and mend his problem but they have only been in vain and his problem is still there, staring him in his eye. He ends his question with a request on what further actions should be done, seeking advice on what other options he has that he is not aware of.
While this I believe to be the opposite
The reason that this is the complete opposite of a decent smart question and a bad question is really simple. When you look at the question. He asks how to download a version of a .js file and does not provide any evidence of effort other than typing the question into stack overflow. He has no courtesy in his question. This is a question that I would answer with RTFM and STFW, look here if you are unfamiliar with these terms. The user, Patel Disha plainly does not ask a good question. User Dan Def comments on this question with a link that similarly attemps to teach a user how to ask a good question.
Smart questions are important to smart software engineers because as my third grade teacher used to say “Stupid questions get stupid answers.” Suprisingly enough that still stands relevant and im glad that I finally learned how to ask correctly(in an online context at least). I knew what not to do, now I know what to do and how to do it well… well after a few attempts I will probably need some work on my first few quesitons to a community. But back to the topic at hand, it’s important because it saves time and valuable thinking. It saves time because usually smart questions can be interpreted quickly, while a stupid question will take time and maybe a few messeges back and forth to clarify the question or problem that a user might be facing. When you ask a smart question you save valuable thinking for the same reasons for saving time, but you may ask a question that gives others food for thought. A challenge that they yearn to solve after the encounter it for the first time, i’m sure that we all have felt this feeling at least once in our coding lives, or even just from a problem solving standpoint. This is a feeling that I have been feeling recently as we have been encountering our WODS(Workout Of the Day) in my ICS314 class at UHM. We are given a problem that we should be prepared for and we have to solve it in a limited amount of time. This gives a feeling of thrill as the clok ticks and problem solving should be done with speed and precision. I believe that’s why smart questions are important, not the “thrill” but the speed and precision that is needed to solve the small errors that one may encounter. It is not worth the time of experienced users to put their effort into doing all the work for one user when the user would probably need less help than they think they need if they just learned how to look for answers themsleves or ask quesitons more efficiently.
Till next key stroke
-Umi