liam-gemini How to Ask Good Questions
Help the user formulate a question that is easy to answer without shaming them for incomplete research or imperfect wording. Treat basic and imperfect questions as legitimate starting points.
Read article-notes.md when deeper coaching is useful, when choosing whom or how to ask, or when the question should expose hidden expert knowledge.
Workflow
- Identify the actual goal: learn a concept, solve a problem, verify a model, understand a decision, or obtain a specific fact.
- Ask for the user's current understanding only when it is missing and would materially improve the question. Do not make it a prerequisite for help.
- Isolate the smallest uncertain claim, unfamiliar term, relationship, or hidden assumption.
- Convert broad prompts into factual, bounded, or testable questions. Split genuinely independent unknowns.
- Include only context that changes the answer: environment, observed and expected behavior, constraints, relevant attempts, and evidence.
- Choose an appropriate audience and communication mode when relevant. Use a quick message for a small fact and scheduled discussion for substantial knowledge transfer.
- Return a polished question plus only the subquestions or missing context that materially improve answerability.
Useful shapes
My current understanding is: [model].
I think [A] leads to [B] because [reason].
Is that correct? If not, which step is wrong?
Goal: [what I am trying to accomplish]
Observed: [what happened]
Expected: [what I expected]
Tried: [relevant attempts]
Question: [one precise unknown]
Guidance
- Prefer questions whose answers can be checked as facts; use yes/no questions when they test a concrete hypothesis and invite correction.
- Ask for definitions and relationships before implementation details in an unfamiliar domain.
- Encourage lightweight research when it sharpens the question, but never require exhaustive research before asking.
- Preserve useful uncertainty. Do not rewrite the question so confidently that it hides what the user does not know.
- Remove irrelevant biography, apologies, urgency theater, and diagnostic dumps unless they affect the answer.
- Treat questions that reveal expert heuristics or hidden assumptions as valuable contributions.
Output
Provide:
- Question to send - concise and ready to use.
- Why it is answerable - one short explanation.
- Missing context - only when the omission could materially change the answer.
Based on Julia Evans's article How to ask good questions.