conversation

There is an old joke about three people who are travelling together in the country when they see a field containing a single sheep, which is black. The first person says "interesting, in this place the sheep are black". The second corrects him: "in this place, one sheep is black". And then the third (usually a scientist of some sort) says "no, in this place, one side of one sheep is black".

An important, secondary consideration in understanding the joke is that the scientist doesn't necessary believe the sheep is only half-black -- but precision is important. (Some call this anal-retentive. To each his own.)

It has become apparent that too many people mistake exploration for belief, though. This is annoying. It reduces the set of topice on which I can have what ought to be an intelligent conversation.

how to ask questions

A pointer to Eric Raymond's guide to asking questions just came across a tech-writing list I'm on. It's aimed at people asking technical questions on newsgroups (and is hacker-centric), and it contains advice on debugging and framing questions appropriately. I already know pretty much everything there, but I found it an interesting read. (And, next time I find myself dealing with someone who doesn't understand this, I'll have somewhere to send him.)

One thing I didn't know is that RTFM apparently has a descendant now, STFW. I'd never heard this one before.