Asking the right questions is more important than having the right answers.
Published in · 3 min read · Apr 16, 2019
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The Most Important Question You Can Ever Ask…
…is also the same one that you should never stop asking.
Something that I’ve always tried getting better at in my lifetime is to stop looking for answers and start asking better questions.
We are continually looking for the shortcut to whatever is “right” when we should really be asking the right questions so that we can bring forth better answers.
If the answers are and always will be the same, we’ll never learn new things or continue to move forward.
So what is the most important question you can ask?
“Why?”
“Why?” is the most important question you could ever ask. And like the subtitle says, it’s the one question that you should never stop asking.
If we never asked “Why?” then I could just stop writing this right now and nobody would even care. But the “Why” gives us answers that continually move us forward.
The importance of asking “Why?” is most prevalent in observing what people prefer.
Everybody has preferences. It’s part of being human. Sorry that you don’t have a choice in this.
You’re allowed to like and dislike things. However, the trap is getting so stuck in your preferences that you disregard considering or questioning any other options.
Many people will say “I like this the best” but at that point they have already shut the door to other opinions or options, stopping the learning process.
Sometimes our preferences are rooted in underlying bias that we don’t even realize. In such case, not asking “Why?” is just an easier escape.
But those that are willing to question WHY are the ones who move beyond the point of like & dislike.
These people are the ones who start to see beyond the veil.
For example:
In advertising one would ask, Why did that person do what they do? What was that ad trying to say? What is their branding doing to attract me? What strategy are they using? Who are they trying to target? Does it achieve that end?
All these questions exist beyond preference. You can’t ask these questions properly if you are walking into the process extremely biased one way or another.
In short: Thinking differently requires you to detach from how you feel about it, and instead re-approach the moment from an objective perspective with fresh eyes.
Now, to answer the question more directly: How do you learn how to do this?
The same way you learn to do anything…
Practice.
Look around at the world. Look at everything and question why it is the way it is.
Why, on your iPhone, if you go to the calendar page, do all your items appear in a tiny, tiny stack at the bottom of the screen? Did you even notice that? Who made that happen? Why did they add that tiny feature?
Nobody would have noticed if they had left it out — so why did they?
Anything and everything in life can be questioned again and again and again, and as long as you stay detached and are willing to go through that process.
Where everyone else will stop at “This is what I like” and “This is what I don’t like.”
You will continue on into the realm of, “This is how it works and why it works.”
