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Subject:Re: Dumb as a fox; was BS-ing your way... From:"Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 27 Mar 2003 07:28:56 -0800 (PST)
I like to use faux-naive questions. Like a lawyer, I try never
to ask a question unless I know the answer (or most of the
answer). Otherwise, how can you evaluate the answer?
So if you ask a developer "What does the GetFoo function
return?" and he says Foo, then you can say "But I tried it last
night and it returned Bar, what's up with that?"
That's a pretty simple example. But if you get into it, you can
use faux-naive questions to force developers to discover flaws
or inconsistencies in their design -- and let them think it was
their discovery.
The Method Call thing (although it worked for John) could have
easily gone the other way. John's developer was helpful and
friendly -- "Oh, here's somebody who is interested in method
calls -- Let me see how I can help!" But another developer with
a different personality might have rolled his eyes and said "Oh
jeez, here comes that tech writer who can't even look up what a
method call is - Let me see how fast I can get him out of my
office."
Mike O.
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