One of the big mantras of learning is that there are no stupid questions. This is usually framed as a way to develop a habit for students to actually start asking questions instead if blankly nodding with no input to a lecture. However, within the context of a technical field (and with some experience myself), the fact of the matter is that there are stupid questions that a quick web search or a minute of reflecting can solve.
When it comes to teaching, teachers want feedback from the students so they can clarify on things that might cause confusion. So a simple question like “what’s the difference between ionic and covalnet bonds” is a valid question even though we just went over that question for the past 20 minutes. This gives the teacher an opportunity to further expand on the subject on hand and futher engages the students. However, if you ask “how big is an integer again?” in a CPU design course during the lecture on the different approaches to memory managemnet, then you are wasting everyones time. There is a correct time, place, and way to ask a question. Whether it is a deep thought provoking technical question or a simple syntax question, there is a time, place, and way to ask those things.
From experience, I want people to ask smart questions, or at least appropriate questions. It is appropriate to ask “what is the syntax of constrtuctors” when first learning about the various implicit functions of objects; it is not appropriate to ask “how do you declare a function” when learning about how imperative languages like C uses the head to dynamically store certain variables. Yet I, as a teaching assistant, do not have the luxury of having people who ask smart questions or even ask questions at all when I am going over relevant material. So that initial thought of “there are no stupid questions” is completely thrown out when I am getting no questions. It is also very bad when I see some of the students code, uncompilable, brute force random permutation garbage with minimal comments on their thought process. Or on the flip side, when I release them to work on the lab I am getting the same simple question from five different people and I do not see any tabs open with a Google search for said question. That makes me think that there is an ongoing symptom with students.
I beleive smart questions are useful for both parties, but in practice and in a traditional teaching enviorment getting any questions at all is a blessing and can give further insight to what the students know to curtail lecture to go over the more complicated bits.
In a team setting, getting questions is also imperative for efficient work flow and time managment. And usually the classic idiom does apply here too as there must be no misunderstandings when the team breaks and transitions into individual work. However, it does not hurt to go onto Google for a few seconds. Some sentiments I agree in this context as smart questions allow for clarity in groups and does not waste anyones time.
For Software Engineering, I feel that smart questions allows for better work flow and better problem solving skills. It is imperative that people on a team know the basics and “does not waste other peoples time.” It also helps with general programming as it makes a connection between what you are confused about with a resource that fixes the problem. It helps that you type it time and time and again that you will eventually get the hang of it. With software in general, the more you work on something, the more comfortable you will get with the material.