A mentor told me I was overcomplicating my questions and I've completely changed how I ask for help now

I used to write these long detailed posts asking for advice on coding stuff, like 3 paragraphs of background. A guy I respect on here just said 'dude, nobody is reading all that. Just say what you need.' So now I lead with the specific problem in one sentence and add details only if someone asks. My response rate went way up. Anyone else get told their asking style was the problem?

2 comments

2 Comments

rileyw721mo ago

Concise wins every time, learned that lesson myself the hard way.

joel_mason221mo ago

Did I learn it the hard way too, @rileyw72? My last email to my boss was basically a short novel and I still got the TLDR response.