Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations waross on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Asking how something can be improved... 1

Status
Not open for further replies.

KBeitel

Mechanical
Apr 30, 2002
55
CA
The quick question I have is, "How do you respond to the question HOW CAN THIS BE IMPROVED? if you were the one asking it initially and it is just fired back at you?"

Take care & have fun!

Kevin
"Hell, there are no rules here -- we're trying to accomplish something." - Thomas A. Edison
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

People who don't ask questions remain ignorant.

Stupid is forever.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
 
People who don't ask questions remain ignorant.

Stupid is forever.{/quote]

Perhaps, but that's what was meant. No wonder your kids are lawyers.

-b
 
People who don't know, are trained to ask a question to deflect another and protect thier ignorance. SEE ALSO: "HOLLYWOOD STAR TALKING POLITICS"
 
pauljohn
The way i heard that was "the only stupid question is the one you don't ask."
 
So you are saying that /any/ question, automatically, is worth asking, to /any/ audience?

I remember an apocryphal story. When one of Albert Einstein's colleagues asked the eminent physicist for his telephone number one day, he reached for a telephone directory and looked it up. "You don't remember your own number?" the man asked, understandably startled. "No," Einstein replied with a shrug. "Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?"

Asking a question requires zero effort. Why should anyone aks a question that they can just as easily answer themselves, or at least find out what they need to know?



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
 
Greg,

Nobody said that. Just like your not saying that we don't have to know our own phone numbers.

-b
 
This is a little bit off-track, isn't it?
Now we are discussing semantics. Is stupid=ignorant if not asking a question=stupid...

I believe the purpose of the OP was :"What do you do when a question backfires at you?"
 
Ooops, I may have started this "stupid thing".
Holly cow Mike, I did not mean to get you going there man, I was just throwing my childhood remembrances at you.




 
One answer to the OPs question is that you use a 5 whys technique

"I want to get rid of that sharp edge"

"why is the edge sharp?"

"Because the paint is sharp"

"why is the paint sharp?"

"because the elctrostatic field when we spray causes more powder to accumulate on the corner of the moulding"

I didn't say you'd always be able to answer them immediately!

which then raises about ten different questions....



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top