Member-only story
Be Incredibly Curious
It is probably the most underrated, and undervalued, technique and way to collaborate.
Some time ago, I wrote a short story about why do not trust pull requests.
In that story, I raised all the problems that come with pull requests that are often overlooked. But I also gave one tip: when doing a pull requests, instead of just asking changes, ask how the code end up being what it was.
But it was not enough, and in fact, I added: “ask questions with genuine curiosity”. Why genuine curiosity? Because we do not want to risk making a question with the wrong tone. I may ask, “Why did you put this variable here?”, but the author could understand: “Are you crazy? Remove this variable here”. That would result in a conflict. But, if you are incredibly curious, you may ask: “I have seen this variable here, I tried to understand how is it here, but I failed, what I am missing?” There, you will express that you are incredibly curious about that.
This technique is not about pull requests, is about human interactions. And…
