'give a specific ask' and 'ask a specific question' are therefore equivalent, with the exception that the former looks like it was written by a 5th grader.
"Can I have a cookie?" is a question, the cookie is the ask. An ask is implicitly tangible or substantial.
"What's the weather today?" is a question, it doesn't really have an ask, since the item being demanded is trivial. It exists in business jargon specifically to separate minor requests "can you send me that file?" from substantial exchanges "can we update this report to include the last two quarters?"
An "ask" is more "demand" than "question", without the negative connotations of demanding things from people.
Looked it up... most dictionaries don't have a noun form of 'ask', though macmillan has a separate page just for it. (It's also a Scandinavian myth about the first man made from an ash tree, but that's probably not the intended use from the OP)
An ask isn't "an act of asking", it's the object/subject of a request. So it's not really a synonym, IMO.
Which mostly goes to show that it's not a word with a definition as we think of it -- it's a word that displays familiarity with the tech scene and is used as a social signal.
Also, I'm not sure Hacker News denizens can really complain too much about other people's jargon. Among many others, we inflicted "blog" and "tweet" on the world.
Fighting this kind of tradition will be an uphill struggle. A losing battle. A tall order. (For those still in primary school, those are all different ways of saying "a big ask", by the way.)
It's a real shame that the article's author had to drop this particular clanger, because the article provides sound advice in a succinct fashion.
Just because it is new to you does not make it useless or wrong. English grammar evolves; that's part of what makes it such an expressive and useful language. Another recent example:
http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/english-...
Relevant: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/01/25
Eg Vince cable saying "the royal mail was not under priced" leads to the response "thats a big ask"
Its more a political slang/jargon term that formally correct English.
Jesus I laughed hard at this. Thank you.
