I believe strongly there are only two answers...
I believe strongly – and more strongly every day – that there are only two possible answers to a “first question”. They are:
I was reminded of this a couple of times in the last week in my various engagements. The most poignant times were with a customer that “solves problems”. They do many things outside my area (lots of cool tools, a little like being on the set of myth busters). A point I got many times was “asking ‘why’ is very important”. People rarely really know what they want. They think they do – but they don’t. Especially when you don’t know what is possible. When you don’t know what is even possible – how can you know exactly what you want (or want to do – in the database for example).
This blog entry I hit reminded me of that in a way. (Yes, I definitely had to google BBROYGBVGW while reading that). Selling that stuff in the article was similar to answering technical questions in a (very roundabout) way. If you read the “why” blog entry I have a few (there is an infinite supply) examples of how just answering a question outright could be dangerous (you need to know why they think they want to do something).
Why and It depends. Always the right answers (but remember, never say always, never say never, I always say” – or as someone commented on the blog once “always is never true, never is always false”
I was reminded of this a couple of times in the last week in my various engagements. The most poignant times were with a customer that “solves problems”. They do many things outside my area (lots of cool tools, a little like being on the set of myth busters). A point I got many times was “asking ‘why’ is very important”. People rarely really know what they want. They think they do – but they don’t. Especially when you don’t know what is possible. When you don’t know what is even possible – how can you know exactly what you want (or want to do – in the database for example).
This blog entry I hit reminded me of that in a way. (Yes, I definitely had to google BBROYGBVGW while reading that). Selling that stuff in the article was similar to answering technical questions in a (very roundabout) way. If you read the “why” blog entry I have a few (there is an infinite supply) examples of how just answering a question outright could be dangerous (you need to know why they think they want to do something).
Why and It depends. Always the right answers (but remember, never say always, never say never, I always say” – or as someone commented on the blog once “always is never true, never is always false”
posted by Thomas Kyte at 7:09 PM
16 Comments:
nice to be famous... or at least quoted still :)
I couldn't agree with you more. I've gotten no end of questions about how to do something obscure and difficult...and on applying the "why" question determined that they had tried to solve a problem and gotten halfway there.
I used to drive my team nuts in meetings when asked an overly general question I'd answer "Well, yes and no..."
Last week, one guy asked "how to wait 10 seconds before an insert?", I answered/asked "Why did you want to wait?". His response/question was "Why did you want to know why?"
I tried to explain that I would to give a valuable advice, but he didn't understand... The explanation of "why?" ask some pedagogy.
Just my comment....
I think that the answer to the question, "Should businesses sell things to people if those things are bad for them or that they know will be misused?" is neatly revealed by the definition of Corporation in the Devil's Dictionary ...
"An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility."
It's been brought to my attention many times that ethics should be reserved strictly for out of work hours activities.
:D
I find that the response "Why?" is often tied to a 'what' from the my customer (developer). By 'what', I mean that they tend to come to me with a solution (the what) already in mind. Like users coming to developers with a 'what' instead of a desctiption of thier business problem. A simple example that we can all relate to. "Plesase create a dump of the database every day at 6:00 PM". That is a 'what'. Asking 'why' reveals that they want a means of restoring in case of failure and their solution is a daily dump. After explaining our real backup process and procedures, the 'what' went away.
This is what I mean that the question "Why?" usually results from a 'what' request.
Also, enough "Why?" questions will drill down to the real business problem, then solutions can be created that solve the problem. But do to this successfully requires knowledge of your tools and techniques, but most of all, it requires a knowledge of the data. For a DBA that could well be the data dictionary. For a developer (and the DBA too, but to a lesser degree) it is more likely the application data and how it is used.
So it comes down to one of the cardinal rules for successful business problem solving and application development. KYD -- Know Your Data. Another of the rules, of course, being . . . Do not be afraid to ask 'Why?".
Never forget the last line to that great bit of poetry "Twas the Night Before Implementation"...
Yet the users exclaimed with a snarl and a taunt,
"Its just what we asked for but not what we want."
One of my favourite questions is: What would you do with it if you had it?
Particularly useful when you get those requests for a report with 10 columns from each of 5 marginally related tables.
Absolutely True. Its a vicious circle. If one wants to know where an ROT is used i would have to say, it depends & again ask him why? For example, if one can say 2*7 = 14 as a ROT, i would say even that is flawed :-). How? I would ask them whats the base you are using. Under base 13 its 11, under base 14 its 10 & so on....
I believe strongly that the very first thing should be “define X, define Y”.
The meanings of the terms and a context for the question [if in doubt] have to be established prior to even attempting an answer.
You do it all the time really … “define better” for example, is what you’ve asked back many, many times.
Sometimes, you can only wonder why.
word: wrevav
BBROYGBVGW -
Bad Boys Ravish Our Young Girls But Violet Goes Willingly
- was always the mnemonic we were taught to remember it
always is never true, never is always false
Or, as I like to say, "There are no absolutes."
The statement below is true.
The statement above is false.
BBROYGBVGW is one of the few things I remember from electronics class 25 years ago. GSN (Get Some Now) accually completes the phrase- Gold/Silver/None. Had to Google for that.
The cynic in me says that in the "old days" the first "B" in BBROYGBVGW was not remembered as "Bad", but as "Black". Any bets, anyone?
> Last week, one guy asked "how to wait 10 seconds before an insert?", I answered/asked "Why did you want to wait?". His response/question was "Why did you want to know why?"
Obviously you should have asked him why he wanted to know why you wanted to know why.
>>Obviously you should have asked him why he wanted to know why you wanted to know why.
For sure, next time I will not forget it.
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