How To Answer Questions?

By Alan

You've got to be kidding. How does Daddy answer questions? That's a huge topic of discussion. Of course, depending on what information you have, you probably have to answer differently. Why is it that some people can find the answers online in a few seconds, when others search endlessly and still struggle with no good results? If they are using the same Internet, then it must be something about technique. We'll talk first about the resources available, and we'll talk techniques in a future article (probably titled "How to find Answers.")

"Why is the sky blue?"

Simply answering simply and truthfully, "Because God made it that way" might suffice. However, if the questioner wants more, the answers get more difficult. "Because, that's the color of air," gets closer. Most of us don't remember high school chemistry, so if the answer must be known, then someone has to look it up.

In the past, if Daddy had previously known the answer, passed down from generations of meterologists, or the father-in-law who was a molecular physicist, then it's simple to repeat back what they know. Verbal tradition and aural memory is how most college lectures are set up, and much of our serious learning is re-inforced by both reading and hearing.

More likely, Daddy doesn't remember the exact answer, so it's a march to the bookshelf, and look it up in the dictionary, "sky blue." or as we knew it "Websters," or a thesaurus, or even the encyclopedia, but those only hint at the answers, or require several page flips to figure out the information. The answers might be in there, but it might take time.

We all know, the best way to answer a question (especially for an impatient child) is accurately but quickly.

(Quick sidebar: There are several reference books you should have as actual books in the house. Among them: An unabridged dictionary--Webster is an excellent choice, a thesaurus--Roget leads the pack, a writing style reference--The Elements of Style by Strunk, or The Chicago Manual of Style, or On Writing Well. You cannot depend on always having access to the Internet. If you couldn't get online, it would prevent you from getting something answered.

Today, more often than not, the answer is "Let's Google it!"

Of course, just Google'ing something doesn't guarantee getting an answer. Most of what Google does is present a list of things that probably contain the words in your question. It might be related to your answer, but it might not. Even the order of what Google presents can't guarantee that the first item in the list contain the best answer. In fact, due to Google's quite secret algorithm for ordering search results, we can't even even say that the first choice is the most popular. So, the answers might be there, but they have to be sifted through, and checked by the searcher. Google, why is the sky blue?

Because, this is a common question, Google knows enough to put a good site at the front of the list that has a nice explaination (with diagrams). However, this only works if enough people have asked the same question in nearly identical ways that you are asking. This is true for Yahoo, Microsoft's Live.com, Ask!, and most results based search engines.

Wikipedia! That's it. wikipedia.org has all the answers. It's topically oriented, and edited by the masses. Of course, it must be right, because thousands of people have read it and checked it! If you have enough answers, you can get very precise and finely calculated answers. Right?

Wrong! This is also known as the story lesson of the Emperor of China's Nose. This very concept is one of the most dangerous ideas that pervade our modern culture. Those students of history know that the masses can also be massively mistaken. The fact that Snopes and Mythbusters exist with such popularity specifically because the masses are often wrong. The good thing, is that the corrections can tend towards more correct information.

Wikipedia is a step in the right direction, but it also typically carries a single answer or opinion of whomever last edited the entry. Again, the answer is probably in there, but needs to be found in all the content.

The newest entry in the popular web engines WolframAlpha as we mentioned last week has some answers. While this does have some promise for answering computational equations, it mostly presents individual facts which can be woven into a more usable form by the searcher. It currently seems to be most useful for someone who is gathering facts, and is going to assemble them into a useful answer, not always answer directly.

A very interesting trend has been using the social web for getting answers. Jason Calacanis' Mahalo has human based answers, and visitors to the website will vote on the results. The best human answers get ranked higher (and actually get paid a bounty for doing it).

Again, this won't always result in the most accurate answer, just the most popular one.

A key to answering questions is to realize that questions are rarely asked in exactly the form you need from a single reference book (or website). You have to know HOW to find the answers. More importantly, sometimes you have to figure out what the question should really be. THEN you can answer it.

You should be skeptical. Answers found online are not always going to be unbiased. Everyone has bias, hidden agendas, and opinions that they might feel outweigh the actual facts. This should be considered in ALL reference materials, not just those online.

An exercise for the reader. "Why did the Pilgrims come to America?" Those who think they know the answer should dig back to original texts. Compare the original with many modern text books, and you might find a different answer.

Easy steps:

• Doing a search on google.com is probably the first step. However, it should not be the last.
• Take the time to examine results other than the top result.
• Skim results quickly to gather trends among multiple websites.
• Serendipity can answer questions you haven't asked yet.
• Use wikipedia for topical answers.
• Other knowledge engines (computational, human driven, social)
• Don't accept all answers at face value.
• Teach your children your tricks for finding good answers.

Teach where to look.

Teach how to look.

Teach what to accept.