Column | chapter nine algorithm

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It is common to encounter difficulties in practical work. Some people see asking for help as a failure and are ashamed to ask others for help. However, while protecting us, procrastination makes us gradually lose the best opportunity to solve the problem, and even delay the project schedule brings huge economic losses. Therefore, asking for help in a timely and appropriate manner is the key to a person’s productivity.

  • When should you ask for help?

  • How do you ask for help without being boring?

  • How can I improve myself with help?

This is what this article will discuss.

1. When should you ask for help?

No one likes to work with someone who can’t think of a solution to a problem. Therefore, you need to make sure that you have tried all possible options before asking for help. At this point, you need to ask yourself if you have done the following:

  • Did I restart my development environment?

  • Did I write down the question?

  • Have I googled it?

  • Do I run build cleanup commands that work from time to time?

  • Have I searched the internal files yet?

  • Have I read more than 20 minutes of relevant source code?

If you’ve tried and still haven’t found a solution, it’s time to ask your teammates for help. You can even make a list of the things you’ve done above and share them with the person you’re asking for help to avoid missteps.

How to ask for help without being boring?

Every team member has their own job responsibilities, so bringing up naive questions frequently can make people feel uncomfortable and even start to question your ability to work. Therefore, to learn communication skills and ask others for help in an appropriate way is an important way to avoid antagonizing others.

1. When asking for help, show that you’ve tried and haven’t given up

When asking for help, don’t start with “I don’t know this” or “I need help” because it means you’re putting off a task that you should be doing yourself. Instead, you can describe the work you’re doing and the difficulties you’re having. Such as:

  • I’m looking into this weird bug in server development;

  • Then talk about what you’ve done: I’ve checked the source code and haven’t found anything so far;

  • Finally, hint at how they can get involved in your next step: I’d like to debug this file, if you can help me.

This is the correct opening to ask for help. Your teammates may be more eager to help you because they found a bug you didn’t, and you’ll solve your own problem.

2. Actively participate in the help process

When your teammates step in to help you solve problems, you need to be actively involved in the problem-solving process. Ask questions and get involved.

For example, you can ask:

“Why might nodes be insecure?”

“Why are you reading this file?”

And take short notes as you ask questions.

These tips may not only be of great use in the future, but also show that you are inquisitive. Also, active learning is much more effective than passive learning, so get involved in as many group discussions as possible.

3. Express appreciation and gratitude to the person who helps

If you make people feel fulfilled helping you, they’ll be more likely to help you in the future. Maybe you already thanked him. But gratitude is different from appreciation. Appreciation makes people feel like they are the one. Here are some ways to do this:

  • In Slack: “Alice, please help me find this bug quickly!”

  • “I was stumped by a problem yesterday. Luckily I asked Alice to help me. She knows a lot about how controls work.”

  • Write a short email: “Thank you again for taking the time to help me. I learned a lot from it.”

Expressing appreciation once in a while will make them feel more appreciated and truly appreciated. This will create a strong relationship with your colleagues. Expressing appreciation may seem harder than expressing gratitude, but doing so will make you more popular.

3. How to improve yourself after getting help?

After hours of hard work, your project finally gets going. Error disappears and your mood brightens. However, within three days, the mistake happened again, and your boss asked you to fix it again. If you ask for help at this point, you will be questioned about your ability to work. Therefore, consolidating what you have learned after getting help from others is an important process of improving your ability.

** First, ** After slack posts a problem, you need to follow up on the progress, solution, and effectiveness of the problem. Learn how others have solved the problem.

In addition, “spaced repetition” is one of the most effective ways to remember. After a while, it can be helpful to revisit the problem and think of a better solution.


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