gh-devkade-collaborator-skills-deep-reading-framework/references/critical-questions.md

Critical Questions by Document Type

This reference provides type-specific questions for Third Pass critical analysis. Use these to supplement the universal questions in SKILL.md.

Tech Blog

Core Analysis:

• What problem does this solve, and for whom?
• What are the trade-offs of this solution vs alternatives?
• What's the assumed technical environment (stack, scale, team size)?
• How would this approach fail or scale poorly?

Design & Implementation:

• Why this approach instead of simpler alternatives?
• What are the hidden costs (complexity, maintenance, performance)?
• What edge cases or error scenarios are not addressed?
• How testable/debuggable is this approach?

Applicability:

• What prerequisites or constraints does this assume?
• How well does this generalize to other contexts?
• What would need to change for my use case?
• Are there better-suited alternatives for my situation?

Evidence Quality:

• Are benchmarks/metrics provided? Are they representative?
• Is there production experience or just prototypes?
• What's missing from the evaluation?

Retrospective

Context & Validity:

• What was the specific context (team, org, timeline, constraints)?
• How much is success due to approach vs context/luck?
• Would this work in a different setting? Which aspects are transferable?

Lessons & Generalization:

• Are lessons backed by specific evidence or anecdotal?
• What's the sample size (one project, multiple iterations)?
• Are there alternative explanations for outcomes?
• What would have happened with different decisions?

Missing Perspectives:

• What didn't work that isn't mentioned?
• Who else was involved? What's their perspective?
• What conflicts or tensions were glossed over?
• What failed attempts preceded success?

Temporal Factors:

• When was this? Are lessons still valid?
• How has the landscape changed since then?
• What would be different if done today?

Technical Documentation

Design & Rationale:

• What design philosophy underlies this approach?
• Why these abstractions vs alternatives?
• What trade-offs were made (flexibility vs simplicity, etc.)?
• What's explicitly not supported, and why?

Completeness & Accuracy:

• What common use cases are not documented?
• Are there undocumented edge cases or gotchas?
• Is error handling clearly explained?
• What's the migration/upgrade story?

Context & Constraints:

• What assumptions about usage patterns?
• What scale/performance characteristics?
• What dependencies or prerequisites?
• What's the intended audience expertise level?

Alternatives & Ecosystem:

• How does this compare to competing approaches?
• What problems does this NOT solve well?
• When should you use something else?

Personal Writing

Argument Structure:

• What's the core thesis or claim?
• Is the claim clearly stated or implicit?
• What evidence supports each point?
• Are there logical gaps or leaps?

Assumptions & Biases:

• What's taken for granted without justification?
• What perspectives or counterarguments are missing?
• Are there hidden biases in framing?
• What's the assumed audience knowledge?

Clarity & Coherence:

• Is the argument easy to follow?
• Do examples actually support the points?
• Are terms used consistently?
• Is the conclusion justified by the body?

Rigor & Evidence:

• Are claims supported by evidence or assertion?
• Are sources credible and relevant?
• Are alternative explanations considered?
• What would strengthen this argument?

Practical Application:

• Is this actionable or purely theoretical?
• Who benefits from these ideas?
• What's needed to implement these suggestions?
• What could go wrong in practice?

Academic Paper

Research Design:

• Are research questions clearly stated?
• Is methodology appropriate for questions?
• Are there confounding variables not controlled?
• Is sample size adequate and representative?
• Could results be explained differently?

Assumptions & Validity:

• What theoretical assumptions underlie this work?
• Are measurements valid for constructs?
• Are there threats to internal/external validity?
• How replicable is this research?

Related Work:

• Is related work comprehensive and fair?
• What relevant prior work is missing?
• How does this advance beyond existing work?
• Are comparisons appropriate and fair?

Results & Interpretation:

• Do conclusions follow from results?
• Are alternative interpretations possible?
• Is statistical significance practical significance?
• What are limitations and boundary conditions?

Contribution & Impact:

• What's genuinely novel here?
• Is contribution incremental or significant?
• What future research does this enable?
• What are real-world applications?

Cross-Cutting Questions

These apply to all document types:

Authority & Credibility:

• What's the author's expertise in this area?
• What potential conflicts of interest exist?
• Is tone confident or overconfident?

Temporal Context:

• When was this written?
• What was the state of the field then?
• What's changed since publication?

Rhetorical Choices:

• What's emphasized vs downplayed?
• What language choices reveal assumptions?
• What's the intended audience and purpose?

Actionability:

• What can I do with this information?
• What would I need to verify before using this?
• What risks come with applying this?