I read yesterday’s inspiration for the day and Paul Graham wrote something interesting.
That’s what you need to do: find a question that makes the world interesting. People who do great things look at the same world everyone else does, but notice some odd detail that’s compellingly mysterious.
https://paulgraham.com/hs.html
Finding a question that makes the world interesting sounds fun.
The quest to find a question is alluring for different reasons: it’s unique; there is no right or wrong answer; the pursuit can take you anywhere; and the results have various impact levels.
But on top of all of that, it gives you meaning.
What Makes A Great Question?
Think back to when a guest speaker was asked a question: more often than not, they would start their answer with “that’s a great question…”
Do they genuinely mean it? How can a question be great? What criteria need to be met for a great question?
I asked Google and all the results directed me to good questions. I wanted to find great questions. Luckily, I found a Harvard article about it. From the article, Tijs Besieux, a researcher at Harvard Business School, says it needs three characteristics: thorough preparation, illustrates expertise, and invites deeper thinking and challenges held beliefs.
I want to focus on the last characteristic: inviting others to deepen their thinking and challenge held beliefs. A great question should invoke a desire to think a bit more, and make you question what you thought was true.
Our Great Questions
A great question can also guide us in the direction we want to go. It’s ridiculous to expect people in their late teens and early twenties to know what they want to do, yet we act as if it’s a given. Some of the most interesting people I came across in college were people who switched their majors 2 to 3 times— I met someone who switched her major 5 times!
Instead of forcing young adults to think they need a subpar answer, what they actually need is a great question. A question that unlocks their curiosity and compels them to work on interesting things. A question that makes them notice smaller details in life. A question that leads to a substantial discovery.
Aristotle’s great question was, “what constitutes a good life?” Darwin’s great question was, “how do species evolve over time?” Shakespeare’s great question was, “what drives human behavior and emotion?” Beauvoir’s great question was, “what does it mean to be a woman?” Baldwin’s great question was, “what is the experience of being black in America?”
All remarkable people had a great question that spurred them.
What’s My Great Question?
I haven’t found my great question yet. And it’s not something I’ll discover by just searching for it; I must continue doing work that interests me. According to Paul Graham, it’s the experience you accumulate from your work and your open-mindedness that’ll lead you to it.
For now, working on interesting projects and taking observations will suffice. Over time, I’ll connect the dots and see where my work took me. Perhaps a great question can be formulated by then.
Here’s my inspiration for the day.
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