The Power of Asking
I’ve been working in the industry as a Ruby on Rails developer for almost eight years. During this time, I’ve worked at four different companies and met some truly excellent developers who taught me a lot.
I went from Junior to Senior, and the key to improving my skills has always been never hesitating to ask for help—whether I’m stuck on a problem or trying to find the best approach for a solution. This habit has consistently given me valuable lessons, not just for myself but for my coworkers as well.
Over the last month, I’ve been working on a lot of new features and pushing many PRs. One nice practice my current company follows is requiring at least two approvals before merging a PR. During the review process, I end up chatting a lot with my teammates.
And I’ve realized something very important: asking questions is a crucial skill for any team.
Question everything—it’s always useful
I really appreciate it when my coworkers ask questions about my code, even when I think it’s already solid. Questions are always good.
They help catch bugs or edge cases you didn’t consider, or they reinforce and clarify the understanding of your solution for the entire team.
As a developer, you should always embrace questions (and suggestions) with an open mind. They’re not only opportunities to learn but also to discuss and improve together. Of course, discussions should always remain respectful. Thoughtful feedback between teammates truly contributes to professional growth—not just as individual developers but as a team.
I’ve always admired humble developers who question everything. That mindset leads to understandable, stable, and high-quality applications.
I’ll never consider myself the best programmer in the world. Even a question from a trainee can give me the insight I need to make a solution better. That’s the mindset we, as senior developers, should encourage. We have the responsibility to create an environment where newcomers can enjoy the process and keep learning.
How can we stimulate these scenarios?
âś… Have clear, readable, and accessible code review guidelines, and always require at least two approvals before merging a pull request.
✅ Avoid workflows that encourage “lone wolf” programmers. A developer working in isolation isn’t healthy in the long term.
âś… Empower the team by giving them independence and space to share. Retrospectives or lightning talks are great moments for sharing experiences and giving feedback about recent features.
There’s always more we can do to improve how we review and build software as a team.
Thanks for reading, and I hope this gave you some ideas to bring back to your own team! 🙌