Today the co-op student from another project came ask me questions about verificaiton. I guess I am the only guy in the area knowledgable in verification and yet kind enough to answer her questions. Her task is pretty straight forward, testing a minor change in one of the blocks. She came up to me and asked, “What do I have to do?”. I guess she is kinda expecting I will give her instructions in a number of easy to follow steps. Instead of answering her questions directly, which is probably the fastest way to send her away, I start telling her verification methodology. Like the difference between white box and black box testing, what is a stimulus, a checker, etc. Then with background in verification methodology, I asked her to think about how she want to test the device. A few hours later, she came back and ask me how to write the testbench. Again, I pointed her to the testbench frame work training slides. I think it is more important teach someone how to learn and think than simply giving the him the answer. In engineering, as well as in life, it is more important to ask the right question than get the right answer.