[mfr]

Whenever I need to ask someone a question about something, I take 2 minutes to do just one more bit of homework on the topic.

The goal to give my brain one more shot at figuring it out on its own. Either I figure it out and I don't have to ask anyone else, or I'm now more informed about the topic when I ask someone a question, and I've moved the topic back to the top of my memory.

When it works, I've learned something, saved someone else from being interrupted, and I get a little kick of "I did it all by myself!" satisfaction. Even when the trick doesn't work, the ensuing conversations are usually much more productive.

[pmjordan]

This is why I like asking questions by email. It forces me to formulate the problem in one go in as much detail as the receiver might need. A lot of the time I end up not sending the email after that mental exercise. (this is basically rubber duck debugging but less abstract - you can work in the context of a real person not an inanimate object)