The underutilized power of questions

The underutilized power of questionsThe underutilized power of questionsWhen people think of Einstein, they see a lone genius with his discoveries.Mostof usdont quite understand what exactly these discoveries were, but we all learnfairlyearly on that he changed ourunderstandingof physics.Similarly, Leonardo da Vinci is familiar to us mostly for his famousMona Lisa,and we know that his notebooks also contained a wide variety of sketches that predicted inventions in science and engineering.Theseimmediateimages that we have of themcreate amental narrativein our mind that associates their intellectwith an ability to produce answers.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraAfter all, without Einstein, there likelywould be noTheory of General Relativity, and who knows how far behind the world would be rightnow.While Da Vinci didnt quite shift our understanding of reality to that degree, it mak es you wonder how much mora progress we could have made if something welches actually done with the sketches he produced.Yet, this narrative is limited in the broader context.Theanswersare what history remembers,but they dont represent the process that produced them.Neither of them actually focused too much on getting to a solution.Of course, once they knew what they were looking for or producing, they put in the work to get to an end, but thats only a verysmallpart of it.BothEinstein and da Vinci, like many other effective people,were driven primarilybyasking rather than answering, andit was the strength of their questions that ultimately shaped their lives.How Useful AreAnswers?At some point or another,we all want to know the meaning of life, andits no secret that everyone is looking for a formula to guarantee happiness.The problem is that evenif you were to randomly find an answer to these questions, they likely wouldnt mean anything to you.Everyanswer isconfinedto the context wi thin which itoperates, andif you havent walked through the path that leads to that context, then the answer will either be completely irrelevant to you or it will cause confusion.Further yet,somanyof us spend our timelooking for such answers without realizing what exactly we want from them.Sure,you want to be happy, but what does that even mean and why is it important?Just because you know that the Theory of General Relativity is one of the pillars of modern physics doesnt mean that this fact is going to improve your life in a tangible way.If you dont understand the broader context within which this theory is true, all it does is lead to more noise and disorientation.In a way,our love of answers comes from our need for certainty.We havean innate attraction to the idea of knowing something, regardless of whether or not its worth knowing.This rarely leads in the right direction.The real secret, as both Einstein and Da Vinci knew,wasnt to strive for certainty,buttobe guided by curiosit y.It was to first do the work ofasking the right things before seeking a solution.Creating Smaller Circles ofRealityTherealitywe know is ahugely confusing place defined by its complexity.To dive in and look for answers in this messisto invite more problems than solutions.You cant just ask the world to organize itself.What you can do, however, ismake the effort yourself.If youpay attention to whatsaroundyou, andrather than immediately manipulating things to fit into your existing mental models,you just observe and then ask,you gain a huge advantage that pays dividends throughout any process.Thepower of questionsis that theyallow you to take something big and messy,like our observation oftheworld,and use it to create smaller circles of reality that are more clearly defined.Its creating this definition that reallyallows you to zone in on things.Instead of looking for happiness or the meaning of life, youstart by first asking the obvious questions that everybody neglects.What is happine ss?Why is knowing the meaning of life relevant?Much of the time,the more you ask and the smaller your circle of reality gets, the more you realize thatmany of thesequestions dont actually require an answer.At least not one that is relevant to your life.Other times, youre able to focus in beyond the surface-level assumptions that drive the need for an answer.The result is often the realization of a core truth that generally has nothing to do with the initial starting point.Questions are what truly matter.The TakeawayEinstein got a taste of his future theoryby first asking himself what it would be like to ride a light wave like a surfer rides an ocean wave.Da Vinci spent his timeasking so many questions in his famous notebooks that eventually thosequestions couldnt help but lead to an answer.If you look at the life of any introspective genius, youll notice a similar underlying curiosity.This curiosity is slow to seek certaintybecause its busy getting the context right.Paradoxically, t hats ultimately what leads it to the right answer rather than any random one.In the words of one of my personal heroesBertrandRussellThe greatest challenge to any thinker is statingtheproblem in a way that will allow a solution.We all have a naturaltendency to get stuckfocusing on surface-level problems thatare so far detached from the reality were actually trying to understand that we end up pushing ourselves in the wrong direction.The good news is thatit doesnt take a genius to remedy it.It just requires us to bemore aware andless attached to discovering pre-packaged solutions.A lot of the confusion in life stems from an inability to narrow down reality to the part of it that actually matters for our intents and purposes.Luckily,if you ask the right questions, thats entirely solvable.This article originally appeared on Design Luck.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study 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