Ask Questions: Why Being Proactive Matters When You Are Stuck

I have notes on my blog that I group into the "common sense" category, for example the "Keep in touch" note. This is a new post from the same category.

I am not a supporter of micromanagement and constant questions in the spirit of "how are you?", so I expect that if a person or team is stuck, they themselves will come with questions. Unfortunately, not everyone shares this point of view and often wait until someone notices* that they are stalling, although this moment may come too late.

The worst thing you can do when something doesn't work out for you is to sit and be silent. Waiting for a deadline or hoping that they forgot about you is not a plan.

If we are talking about questions related to the implementation of a task, if you are missing something or have problems with the data that was provided to you, just ask a question. There is no need to blame someone for not doing their job well, your task in this situation is to be proactive and quickly start asking questions.

Of course, not immersing yourself in a task and immediately running to ask questions that may have answers in the task/code/knowledge base is an example of a bad employee. But if, after everything you've learned, you're still not clear on what needs to be done or how to do it, start asking questions.

Feel free to write to the general chat if you don't know who can help. Feel free to generally ask questions you need answers to. This way you can become better and do a better job.

Now that AI is everywhere, the first place I'll go if I'm missing full context about the heart of the matter is ChatGPT. So far, very rare questions have not received an answer that would suit me. Sometimes, I need validation from people with some experience or knowledge, and maybe even additional context, then it's my time to "ask questions," but today we're talking about something else.

Therefore, if you are stalling, ask questions.

*I will write about this in another post