How do I ask a good question about a topic I am not completely familiar with?Whats the best way to write mathematical preliminaries for physics papers?General question about mathematical thinkingDesigning a mathematical physics classIn What order should I Learn math in?What do you do when you are completely lost during a proof?Most efficient way to learn mathematicsHow to learn about the Rubik's Cube?How to take notes on Baby RudinReading textbooks: do we have to prove every theorem?Should I figure something out before learning how? SELF STUDYGraduate School (Can I be a Mathematician?)
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How do I ask a good question about a topic I am not completely familiar with?
Whats the best way to write mathematical preliminaries for physics papers?General question about mathematical thinkingDesigning a mathematical physics classIn What order should I Learn math in?What do you do when you are completely lost during a proof?Most efficient way to learn mathematicsHow to learn about the Rubik's Cube?How to take notes on Baby RudinReading textbooks: do we have to prove every theorem?Should I figure something out before learning how? SELF STUDYGraduate School (Can I be a Mathematician?)
.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;
$begingroup$
In my classes, it is easy as my professor would correct my question if it bad, or ask me to re-state it and I would learn something new if my question was good or bad. However, in this site I have found people have a little less patience when dealing with questions like this. Often, I find myself being bombarded by irrelevant things in the comments below that have nothing to do with my question, no help to help me with where the problem is and such. It is kind of demotivating seeing all this negative feedback when posting a question while it would take the same amount of time to suggest a fix on the question its self and help me understand what I am doing wrong.
soft-question
edited 8 hours ago
David G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
bgunerbguner
294 bronze badges
$endgroup$
|
show 4 more comments
$begingroup$
In my classes, it is easy as my professor would correct my question if it bad, or ask me to re-state it and I would learn something new if my question was good or bad. However, in this site I have found people have a little less patience when dealing with questions like this. Often, I find myself being bombarded by irrelevant things in the comments below that have nothing to do with my question, no help to help me with where the problem is and such. It is kind of demotivating seeing all this negative feedback when posting a question while it would take the same amount of time to suggest a fix on the question its self and help me understand what I am doing wrong.
soft-question
edited 8 hours ago
David G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
bgunerbguner
294 bronze badges
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
Usually, showing an effort (even an incorrect effort) is not bad received here. Basically, the community should have some evidence that the questioner has tried something. Of course, downvotes and closevotes are not always justified. Can you link particular such questions where you have the feeling this happened ?
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
math.stackexchange.com/questions/3276243/…
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
and a few more such as around 3 days ago, I asked why can a reducible Holonomy representation be indecomposable and asked what the meaning for reducible and indecomposable when talking about Holonomy representations and why we use two words to mean you can decompose the representation into irreducible subspaces. And the comments after 1 hour of waiting went something like: well of course we use two, and such.
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
The point of providing context is not (only) to show effort or to prove that you deserve to get an answer. It is (also) to specify what you're looking for precisely enough that random people on the internet who've never met you will be able to provide a helpful answer. I'd guess that people are downvoting the question you've linked because it's fundamentally impossible to answer without knowing a lot more detail about your paper than you've provided, and quite possibly more detail than it's possible to give in a forum post.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
To put it another way, the set of questions which are good in a classroom or academic setting is larger than the set of questions which are good on the internet. Requests for "context" are generally intended to shrink that gap, but they cannot remove it entirely.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
|
show 4 more comments
$begingroup$
In my classes, it is easy as my professor would correct my question if it bad, or ask me to re-state it and I would learn something new if my question was good or bad. However, in this site I have found people have a little less patience when dealing with questions like this. Often, I find myself being bombarded by irrelevant things in the comments below that have nothing to do with my question, no help to help me with where the problem is and such. It is kind of demotivating seeing all this negative feedback when posting a question while it would take the same amount of time to suggest a fix on the question its self and help me understand what I am doing wrong.
soft-question
edited 8 hours ago
David G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
bgunerbguner
294 bronze badges
$endgroup$
In my classes, it is easy as my professor would correct my question if it bad, or ask me to re-state it and I would learn something new if my question was good or bad. However, in this site I have found people have a little less patience when dealing with questions like this. Often, I find myself being bombarded by irrelevant things in the comments below that have nothing to do with my question, no help to help me with where the problem is and such. It is kind of demotivating seeing all this negative feedback when posting a question while it would take the same amount of time to suggest a fix on the question its self and help me understand what I am doing wrong.
soft-question
soft-question
edited 8 hours ago
David G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
bgunerbguner
294 bronze badges
edited 8 hours ago
David G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
bgunerbguner
294 bronze badges
edited 8 hours ago
David G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
edited 8 hours ago
David G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
edited 8 hours ago
David G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
bgunerbguner
294 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
bgunerbguner
294 bronze badges
asked 8 hours ago
bgunerbguner
294 bronze badges
294 bronze badges
$begingroup$
Usually, showing an effort (even an incorrect effort) is not bad received here. Basically, the community should have some evidence that the questioner has tried something. Of course, downvotes and closevotes are not always justified. Can you link particular such questions where you have the feeling this happened ?
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
math.stackexchange.com/questions/3276243/…
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
and a few more such as around 3 days ago, I asked why can a reducible Holonomy representation be indecomposable and asked what the meaning for reducible and indecomposable when talking about Holonomy representations and why we use two words to mean you can decompose the representation into irreducible subspaces. And the comments after 1 hour of waiting went something like: well of course we use two, and such.
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
The point of providing context is not (only) to show effort or to prove that you deserve to get an answer. It is (also) to specify what you're looking for precisely enough that random people on the internet who've never met you will be able to provide a helpful answer. I'd guess that people are downvoting the question you've linked because it's fundamentally impossible to answer without knowing a lot more detail about your paper than you've provided, and quite possibly more detail than it's possible to give in a forum post.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
To put it another way, the set of questions which are good in a classroom or academic setting is larger than the set of questions which are good on the internet. Requests for "context" are generally intended to shrink that gap, but they cannot remove it entirely.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
|
show 4 more comments
$begingroup$
Usually, showing an effort (even an incorrect effort) is not bad received here. Basically, the community should have some evidence that the questioner has tried something. Of course, downvotes and closevotes are not always justified. Can you link particular such questions where you have the feeling this happened ?
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
math.stackexchange.com/questions/3276243/…
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
and a few more such as around 3 days ago, I asked why can a reducible Holonomy representation be indecomposable and asked what the meaning for reducible and indecomposable when talking about Holonomy representations and why we use two words to mean you can decompose the representation into irreducible subspaces. And the comments after 1 hour of waiting went something like: well of course we use two, and such.
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
The point of providing context is not (only) to show effort or to prove that you deserve to get an answer. It is (also) to specify what you're looking for precisely enough that random people on the internet who've never met you will be able to provide a helpful answer. I'd guess that people are downvoting the question you've linked because it's fundamentally impossible to answer without knowing a lot more detail about your paper than you've provided, and quite possibly more detail than it's possible to give in a forum post.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
To put it another way, the set of questions which are good in a classroom or academic setting is larger than the set of questions which are good on the internet. Requests for "context" are generally intended to shrink that gap, but they cannot remove it entirely.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
Usually, showing an effort (even an incorrect effort) is not bad received here. Basically, the community should have some evidence that the questioner has tried something. Of course, downvotes and closevotes are not always justified. Can you link particular such questions where you have the feeling this happened ?
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
Usually, showing an effort (even an incorrect effort) is not bad received here. Basically, the community should have some evidence that the questioner has tried something. Of course, downvotes and closevotes are not always justified. Can you link particular such questions where you have the feeling this happened ?
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
math.stackexchange.com/questions/3276243/…
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
math.stackexchange.com/questions/3276243/…
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
and a few more such as around 3 days ago, I asked why can a reducible Holonomy representation be indecomposable and asked what the meaning for reducible and indecomposable when talking about Holonomy representations and why we use two words to mean you can decompose the representation into irreducible subspaces. And the comments after 1 hour of waiting went something like: well of course we use two, and such.
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
and a few more such as around 3 days ago, I asked why can a reducible Holonomy representation be indecomposable and asked what the meaning for reducible and indecomposable when talking about Holonomy representations and why we use two words to mean you can decompose the representation into irreducible subspaces. And the comments after 1 hour of waiting went something like: well of course we use two, and such.
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
1
1
$begingroup$
The point of providing context is not (only) to show effort or to prove that you deserve to get an answer. It is (also) to specify what you're looking for precisely enough that random people on the internet who've never met you will be able to provide a helpful answer. I'd guess that people are downvoting the question you've linked because it's fundamentally impossible to answer without knowing a lot more detail about your paper than you've provided, and quite possibly more detail than it's possible to give in a forum post.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
The point of providing context is not (only) to show effort or to prove that you deserve to get an answer. It is (also) to specify what you're looking for precisely enough that random people on the internet who've never met you will be able to provide a helpful answer. I'd guess that people are downvoting the question you've linked because it's fundamentally impossible to answer without knowing a lot more detail about your paper than you've provided, and quite possibly more detail than it's possible to give in a forum post.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
1
1
$begingroup$
To put it another way, the set of questions which are good in a classroom or academic setting is larger than the set of questions which are good on the internet. Requests for "context" are generally intended to shrink that gap, but they cannot remove it entirely.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
To put it another way, the set of questions which are good in a classroom or academic setting is larger than the set of questions which are good on the internet. Requests for "context" are generally intended to shrink that gap, but they cannot remove it entirely.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
|
show 4 more comments
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
First, I want to praise you for asking a good question here!
Alas, teachers and professors generally only encourage students to ask "clarification questions," and don't otherwise instruct students how to ask good questions. (Of course every teacher answers questions... a different matter.) There are even cultures in which asking any questions is discouraged because it is considered an affront to the teacher ("who didn't explain the material well enough"), or the student him/herself ("who couldn't understand what everyone else understood").
At least your teacher and you realize that some questions are good, others bad.
A meta-technique: listen closely to the questions from other students and figure out what leads to good questions.
Here are guidelines:
- Ask about extremal cases (what's the most? the least? the farthest? the closest? the biggest? the smallest?...) as appropriate to the topic.
- Ask about how one knows some fact is true (how can one prove that? what is the evidence for that?...)
- Ask about analogies (is this similar to X? to Y?...) or ask for an analogy (what other thing is this analogous to?...)
- Ask how some fact is used in the real world. If the fact is about the real world, as about the theory that gave rise to it.
- Of course if there is a particular matter or step in a teacher's explanation ask a clear, cogent clarification question.
- Always make your questions clear, relevant, and well stated. Don't ramble, or mixup lots of questions (some good, some not, some related, others not...). Avoid discursive, rambling questions ("I was thinking about triangles the other day and wondered about right triangles and realized I was taught proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, I know there are many such proofs, so I wondered if anyone knows which is the shortest proof." Instead: "What's the shortest proof of the Pythagorean theorem?")
Finally, do a YouTube search on my name, "TEDx", and "How to ask good questions" to see a video on this topic.
Good luck!
answered 8 hours ago
David G. StorkDavid G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
No matter in which culture a teacher works, a serious teacher should answer sensible questions as good as he/she can , this is the job of a teacher. Instead of videos, I would suggest to read articles. Wikipedia is often a good start , more details can ususally be found in the suitable books.
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
@Peter: See revised answer. Teachers answering questions is not the matter at hand. Likewise, reading articles do not teach how to ask good questions. You're assuming the student reading an article will magically come up with good questions. Four decades of teaching in elite colleges and universities shows me that is not the case.
$endgroup$
– David G. Stork
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
A good answer (+1)
$endgroup$
– Peter
7 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I haven’t looked back over your previous questions, so this may not be one of your vices. But I will say it all the same because some other reader may benefit.
DO NOT ASK PEOPLE TO DO THINGS
Ask people to help you do something, and they will be delighted to help, because they know that at the end of it you will know more than you did, all thanks to them. Help them help you. Show them what you have tried. Even ask them what technique would be best for solving this problem or that one. But don’t say “Solve it for me!”. It makes people feel murderous.
And (again I don’t know whether you fall into this trap, and probably you don’t) - do read your question and see if it makes sense to someone far away who can’t see you and can’t see what you are doing. It is tragic to see people asking how to find the value of $x$ when the problem they have described doesn’t have an $x$ in it anywhere!
And do be encouraged by the answers to this question to ask more questions in future.
answered 5 hours ago
Martin KochanskiMartin Kochanski
2,4364 silver badges12 bronze badges
$endgroup$
add a comment |
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2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
First, I want to praise you for asking a good question here!
Alas, teachers and professors generally only encourage students to ask "clarification questions," and don't otherwise instruct students how to ask good questions. (Of course every teacher answers questions... a different matter.) There are even cultures in which asking any questions is discouraged because it is considered an affront to the teacher ("who didn't explain the material well enough"), or the student him/herself ("who couldn't understand what everyone else understood").
At least your teacher and you realize that some questions are good, others bad.
A meta-technique: listen closely to the questions from other students and figure out what leads to good questions.
Here are guidelines:
- Ask about extremal cases (what's the most? the least? the farthest? the closest? the biggest? the smallest?...) as appropriate to the topic.
- Ask about how one knows some fact is true (how can one prove that? what is the evidence for that?...)
- Ask about analogies (is this similar to X? to Y?...) or ask for an analogy (what other thing is this analogous to?...)
- Ask how some fact is used in the real world. If the fact is about the real world, as about the theory that gave rise to it.
- Of course if there is a particular matter or step in a teacher's explanation ask a clear, cogent clarification question.
- Always make your questions clear, relevant, and well stated. Don't ramble, or mixup lots of questions (some good, some not, some related, others not...). Avoid discursive, rambling questions ("I was thinking about triangles the other day and wondered about right triangles and realized I was taught proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, I know there are many such proofs, so I wondered if anyone knows which is the shortest proof." Instead: "What's the shortest proof of the Pythagorean theorem?")
Finally, do a YouTube search on my name, "TEDx", and "How to ask good questions" to see a video on this topic.
Good luck!
answered 8 hours ago
David G. StorkDavid G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
No matter in which culture a teacher works, a serious teacher should answer sensible questions as good as he/she can , this is the job of a teacher. Instead of videos, I would suggest to read articles. Wikipedia is often a good start , more details can ususally be found in the suitable books.
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
@Peter: See revised answer. Teachers answering questions is not the matter at hand. Likewise, reading articles do not teach how to ask good questions. You're assuming the student reading an article will magically come up with good questions. Four decades of teaching in elite colleges and universities shows me that is not the case.
$endgroup$
– David G. Stork
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
A good answer (+1)
$endgroup$
– Peter
7 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
First, I want to praise you for asking a good question here!
Alas, teachers and professors generally only encourage students to ask "clarification questions," and don't otherwise instruct students how to ask good questions. (Of course every teacher answers questions... a different matter.) There are even cultures in which asking any questions is discouraged because it is considered an affront to the teacher ("who didn't explain the material well enough"), or the student him/herself ("who couldn't understand what everyone else understood").
At least your teacher and you realize that some questions are good, others bad.
A meta-technique: listen closely to the questions from other students and figure out what leads to good questions.
Here are guidelines:
- Ask about extremal cases (what's the most? the least? the farthest? the closest? the biggest? the smallest?...) as appropriate to the topic.
- Ask about how one knows some fact is true (how can one prove that? what is the evidence for that?...)
- Ask about analogies (is this similar to X? to Y?...) or ask for an analogy (what other thing is this analogous to?...)
- Ask how some fact is used in the real world. If the fact is about the real world, as about the theory that gave rise to it.
- Of course if there is a particular matter or step in a teacher's explanation ask a clear, cogent clarification question.
- Always make your questions clear, relevant, and well stated. Don't ramble, or mixup lots of questions (some good, some not, some related, others not...). Avoid discursive, rambling questions ("I was thinking about triangles the other day and wondered about right triangles and realized I was taught proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, I know there are many such proofs, so I wondered if anyone knows which is the shortest proof." Instead: "What's the shortest proof of the Pythagorean theorem?")
Finally, do a YouTube search on my name, "TEDx", and "How to ask good questions" to see a video on this topic.
Good luck!
answered 8 hours ago
David G. StorkDavid G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
No matter in which culture a teacher works, a serious teacher should answer sensible questions as good as he/she can , this is the job of a teacher. Instead of videos, I would suggest to read articles. Wikipedia is often a good start , more details can ususally be found in the suitable books.
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
@Peter: See revised answer. Teachers answering questions is not the matter at hand. Likewise, reading articles do not teach how to ask good questions. You're assuming the student reading an article will magically come up with good questions. Four decades of teaching in elite colleges and universities shows me that is not the case.
$endgroup$
– David G. Stork
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
A good answer (+1)
$endgroup$
– Peter
7 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
First, I want to praise you for asking a good question here!
Alas, teachers and professors generally only encourage students to ask "clarification questions," and don't otherwise instruct students how to ask good questions. (Of course every teacher answers questions... a different matter.) There are even cultures in which asking any questions is discouraged because it is considered an affront to the teacher ("who didn't explain the material well enough"), or the student him/herself ("who couldn't understand what everyone else understood").
At least your teacher and you realize that some questions are good, others bad.
A meta-technique: listen closely to the questions from other students and figure out what leads to good questions.
Here are guidelines:
- Ask about extremal cases (what's the most? the least? the farthest? the closest? the biggest? the smallest?...) as appropriate to the topic.
- Ask about how one knows some fact is true (how can one prove that? what is the evidence for that?...)
- Ask about analogies (is this similar to X? to Y?...) or ask for an analogy (what other thing is this analogous to?...)
- Ask how some fact is used in the real world. If the fact is about the real world, as about the theory that gave rise to it.
- Of course if there is a particular matter or step in a teacher's explanation ask a clear, cogent clarification question.
- Always make your questions clear, relevant, and well stated. Don't ramble, or mixup lots of questions (some good, some not, some related, others not...). Avoid discursive, rambling questions ("I was thinking about triangles the other day and wondered about right triangles and realized I was taught proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, I know there are many such proofs, so I wondered if anyone knows which is the shortest proof." Instead: "What's the shortest proof of the Pythagorean theorem?")
Finally, do a YouTube search on my name, "TEDx", and "How to ask good questions" to see a video on this topic.
Good luck!
answered 8 hours ago
David G. StorkDavid G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
$endgroup$
First, I want to praise you for asking a good question here!
Alas, teachers and professors generally only encourage students to ask "clarification questions," and don't otherwise instruct students how to ask good questions. (Of course every teacher answers questions... a different matter.) There are even cultures in which asking any questions is discouraged because it is considered an affront to the teacher ("who didn't explain the material well enough"), or the student him/herself ("who couldn't understand what everyone else understood").
At least your teacher and you realize that some questions are good, others bad.
A meta-technique: listen closely to the questions from other students and figure out what leads to good questions.
Here are guidelines:
- Ask about extremal cases (what's the most? the least? the farthest? the closest? the biggest? the smallest?...) as appropriate to the topic.
- Ask about how one knows some fact is true (how can one prove that? what is the evidence for that?...)
- Ask about analogies (is this similar to X? to Y?...) or ask for an analogy (what other thing is this analogous to?...)
- Ask how some fact is used in the real world. If the fact is about the real world, as about the theory that gave rise to it.
- Of course if there is a particular matter or step in a teacher's explanation ask a clear, cogent clarification question.
- Always make your questions clear, relevant, and well stated. Don't ramble, or mixup lots of questions (some good, some not, some related, others not...). Avoid discursive, rambling questions ("I was thinking about triangles the other day and wondered about right triangles and realized I was taught proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, I know there are many such proofs, so I wondered if anyone knows which is the shortest proof." Instead: "What's the shortest proof of the Pythagorean theorem?")
Finally, do a YouTube search on my name, "TEDx", and "How to ask good questions" to see a video on this topic.
Good luck!
answered 8 hours ago
David G. StorkDavid G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
edited 5 hours ago
answered 8 hours ago
David G. StorkDavid G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
answered 8 hours ago
David G. StorkDavid G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
answered 8 hours ago
David G. StorkDavid G. Stork
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
13.4k4 gold badges19 silver badges37 bronze badges
$begingroup$
No matter in which culture a teacher works, a serious teacher should answer sensible questions as good as he/she can , this is the job of a teacher. Instead of videos, I would suggest to read articles. Wikipedia is often a good start , more details can ususally be found in the suitable books.
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
@Peter: See revised answer. Teachers answering questions is not the matter at hand. Likewise, reading articles do not teach how to ask good questions. You're assuming the student reading an article will magically come up with good questions. Four decades of teaching in elite colleges and universities shows me that is not the case.
$endgroup$
– David G. Stork
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
A good answer (+1)
$endgroup$
– Peter
7 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
No matter in which culture a teacher works, a serious teacher should answer sensible questions as good as he/she can , this is the job of a teacher. Instead of videos, I would suggest to read articles. Wikipedia is often a good start , more details can ususally be found in the suitable books.
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
@Peter: See revised answer. Teachers answering questions is not the matter at hand. Likewise, reading articles do not teach how to ask good questions. You're assuming the student reading an article will magically come up with good questions. Four decades of teaching in elite colleges and universities shows me that is not the case.
$endgroup$
– David G. Stork
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
A good answer (+1)
$endgroup$
– Peter
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
No matter in which culture a teacher works, a serious teacher should answer sensible questions as good as he/she can , this is the job of a teacher. Instead of videos, I would suggest to read articles. Wikipedia is often a good start , more details can ususally be found in the suitable books.
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
No matter in which culture a teacher works, a serious teacher should answer sensible questions as good as he/she can , this is the job of a teacher. Instead of videos, I would suggest to read articles. Wikipedia is often a good start , more details can ususally be found in the suitable books.
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
@Peter: See revised answer. Teachers answering questions is not the matter at hand. Likewise, reading articles do not teach how to ask good questions. You're assuming the student reading an article will magically come up with good questions. Four decades of teaching in elite colleges and universities shows me that is not the case.
$endgroup$
– David G. Stork
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
@Peter: See revised answer. Teachers answering questions is not the matter at hand. Likewise, reading articles do not teach how to ask good questions. You're assuming the student reading an article will magically come up with good questions. Four decades of teaching in elite colleges and universities shows me that is not the case.
$endgroup$
– David G. Stork
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
A good answer (+1)
$endgroup$
– Peter
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
A good answer (+1)
$endgroup$
– Peter
7 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I haven’t looked back over your previous questions, so this may not be one of your vices. But I will say it all the same because some other reader may benefit.
DO NOT ASK PEOPLE TO DO THINGS
Ask people to help you do something, and they will be delighted to help, because they know that at the end of it you will know more than you did, all thanks to them. Help them help you. Show them what you have tried. Even ask them what technique would be best for solving this problem or that one. But don’t say “Solve it for me!”. It makes people feel murderous.
And (again I don’t know whether you fall into this trap, and probably you don’t) - do read your question and see if it makes sense to someone far away who can’t see you and can’t see what you are doing. It is tragic to see people asking how to find the value of $x$ when the problem they have described doesn’t have an $x$ in it anywhere!
And do be encouraged by the answers to this question to ask more questions in future.
answered 5 hours ago
Martin KochanskiMartin Kochanski
2,4364 silver badges12 bronze badges
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I haven’t looked back over your previous questions, so this may not be one of your vices. But I will say it all the same because some other reader may benefit.
DO NOT ASK PEOPLE TO DO THINGS
Ask people to help you do something, and they will be delighted to help, because they know that at the end of it you will know more than you did, all thanks to them. Help them help you. Show them what you have tried. Even ask them what technique would be best for solving this problem or that one. But don’t say “Solve it for me!”. It makes people feel murderous.
And (again I don’t know whether you fall into this trap, and probably you don’t) - do read your question and see if it makes sense to someone far away who can’t see you and can’t see what you are doing. It is tragic to see people asking how to find the value of $x$ when the problem they have described doesn’t have an $x$ in it anywhere!
And do be encouraged by the answers to this question to ask more questions in future.
answered 5 hours ago
Martin KochanskiMartin Kochanski
2,4364 silver badges12 bronze badges
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I haven’t looked back over your previous questions, so this may not be one of your vices. But I will say it all the same because some other reader may benefit.
DO NOT ASK PEOPLE TO DO THINGS
Ask people to help you do something, and they will be delighted to help, because they know that at the end of it you will know more than you did, all thanks to them. Help them help you. Show them what you have tried. Even ask them what technique would be best for solving this problem or that one. But don’t say “Solve it for me!”. It makes people feel murderous.
And (again I don’t know whether you fall into this trap, and probably you don’t) - do read your question and see if it makes sense to someone far away who can’t see you and can’t see what you are doing. It is tragic to see people asking how to find the value of $x$ when the problem they have described doesn’t have an $x$ in it anywhere!
And do be encouraged by the answers to this question to ask more questions in future.
answered 5 hours ago
Martin KochanskiMartin Kochanski
2,4364 silver badges12 bronze badges
$endgroup$
I haven’t looked back over your previous questions, so this may not be one of your vices. But I will say it all the same because some other reader may benefit.
DO NOT ASK PEOPLE TO DO THINGS
Ask people to help you do something, and they will be delighted to help, because they know that at the end of it you will know more than you did, all thanks to them. Help them help you. Show them what you have tried. Even ask them what technique would be best for solving this problem or that one. But don’t say “Solve it for me!”. It makes people feel murderous.
And (again I don’t know whether you fall into this trap, and probably you don’t) - do read your question and see if it makes sense to someone far away who can’t see you and can’t see what you are doing. It is tragic to see people asking how to find the value of $x$ when the problem they have described doesn’t have an $x$ in it anywhere!
And do be encouraged by the answers to this question to ask more questions in future.
answered 5 hours ago
Martin KochanskiMartin Kochanski
2,4364 silver badges12 bronze badges
answered 5 hours ago
Martin KochanskiMartin Kochanski
2,4364 silver badges12 bronze badges
answered 5 hours ago
Martin KochanskiMartin Kochanski
2,4364 silver badges12 bronze badges
answered 5 hours ago
Martin KochanskiMartin Kochanski
2,4364 silver badges12 bronze badges
2,4364 silver badges12 bronze badges
add a comment |
add a comment |
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$begingroup$
Usually, showing an effort (even an incorrect effort) is not bad received here. Basically, the community should have some evidence that the questioner has tried something. Of course, downvotes and closevotes are not always justified. Can you link particular such questions where you have the feeling this happened ?
$endgroup$
– Peter
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
math.stackexchange.com/questions/3276243/…
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
$begingroup$
and a few more such as around 3 days ago, I asked why can a reducible Holonomy representation be indecomposable and asked what the meaning for reducible and indecomposable when talking about Holonomy representations and why we use two words to mean you can decompose the representation into irreducible subspaces. And the comments after 1 hour of waiting went something like: well of course we use two, and such.
$endgroup$
– bguner
8 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
The point of providing context is not (only) to show effort or to prove that you deserve to get an answer. It is (also) to specify what you're looking for precisely enough that random people on the internet who've never met you will be able to provide a helpful answer. I'd guess that people are downvoting the question you've linked because it's fundamentally impossible to answer without knowing a lot more detail about your paper than you've provided, and quite possibly more detail than it's possible to give in a forum post.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago
1
$begingroup$
To put it another way, the set of questions which are good in a classroom or academic setting is larger than the set of questions which are good on the internet. Requests for "context" are generally intended to shrink that gap, but they cannot remove it entirely.
$endgroup$
– Micah
7 hours ago