The Art Of Asking Questions
When we were little children, our innocence made us rich. We were rich with the freedom to make mistakes and to ask questions. Our daily life involved exploration and experimentation, so that we could get to know the world we never knew. Every single day was exciting and full of wonder. Remember the day you discovered that the kettle whistles when its water boil? Or the first time you touched the icy cold water in the swimming pool and liked how it felt on your skin? Remember how many questions you asked your parents and how tirelessly they replied to satisfy your curiousity of this mysterious world in the making?
Well, times have changed. Twenty years later, you have grown up. You are wearing pretty ribbons in your hair, or long smart ties for college presentations. Intelligence is an important expression to wear, to create the best first impression to everyone you meet. Nobody wants to befriend stupidity and will stay away from anything that will reflect that. Self-consciousness grew among people way past their innocence and carrying a good image is terribly important. Gossips and remarks are hurled all over the communities you live in, either uplifting or destroying your own self-image. In this competitive world, we all try very hard to be the best, to be perfect and to meet everyone’s expectations of how we should be, although some of us are already well-aware of how impossible it is to please everybody at the same time because each individual carries different expectations in them.
In the effort to uphold their good image, people are increasingly afraid to ask questions anymore. When a certain problem occur, asking questions will aide us to seek the root of the problem. The problem nowadays is that people do not ask enough questions. They are afraid that asking questions is stupid and therefore cease asking questions to seek answers they are dying to know. Now asking questions is one of the most interesting way to mirror the content of what is stored in your brain. Some people ask intelligent questions and some people do not. Asking questions is one of the greatest communication skill one must master, to get the answer you want, but yet not look too stupid.
But I remembered one of my most respectable editor of an established local newspaper said, “There’s no such thing as a stupid question but those who refuse to ask questions when they do not know the answer are the stupid ones.” It has been engraved in my heart ever since it was spoken to me. I felt that it is important that I share this quote with everyone, and yes, it is true that there are no stupid questions but we must also know what is the best way to seek answers. While children have the freedom to recklessly ask questions and believe everything that is being told to them because it’s socially acceptable and because they believe that adults or parents are answer machines or gods who knew everything, as they gradually age and when the age of innocence have passed away, the escalation and accumulation of personal learning experience have equipped them with the discernment between reliable and false knowledge, a certain social expectation grows on them and it is measured against the scale of stupidity. It is up to every individual whether they grow in their ability to grasp knowledge or they just slip away into ignorance and fantasy.
“There’s no such thing as a stupid question but those who refuse to ask questions when they do not know the answer are the stupid ones.”
Nowadays, with the explosion of the knowledge economy and with the advent of internet, search engines like google and yahoo has made available numerous information just a few clicks away. It is our biggest library and our greatest source of information. Of course, it is up to us to be able to discern which source of information is trustworthy and which is not. At the same time, not everything we read online or in books reflect the reality of our world. Those packaged in books, movies or CDs are life boxed into beautiful colourful and photoshopped printings of people wearing heavy make-ups. There is an odd observation about make-ups that is the thicker the make-up, the more successful the person is because unusually thick make-ups are usually worn by people who are being interviewed on TV and people who goes on TV and well-dressed are usually highly successful. Therefore, you do not see the blemishes on the skin, you do not know the state of mind of these successful people, you did not see the toil they went through, when they were deathly ill, ugly and pale, when they were through hardships but all you see, is a good-looking famous and successful TV personality on your TV screen, telling his or her struggles like they never occured. Because you have only heard and have not seen, although many people have said that their successes are not overnight success, it is not usually visible to the naked eye, people forget you when you are struggling but remember you and wants to be part of you when you are successful. You don’t know what happened in the politics of the company, the power struggle within a company, the conspiracy, the ugly rivalry, or perhaps murder.
It is when you are with people who are directly involved in the particular company, or any particular organization whatsoever that you’d be able to hear the truth behind every successful organization, how people cover up truths of false accounts, how there’s conspiracy and corruption and all sorts of things people are not proud to hear about, things that are too juicy to gossip, things that wreck the security of another who listens to stories of moral declination in our society. In this particular case, asking questions would be useful if you seek employment in a current company and by knowing the exact situation of the company will determine how your life would be like in near future if you are employed by the company. But there are certain questions you should never discuss with another unless you are absolutely certain that the person is trustworthy, and even that, you might be wrong and if you trust the wrong person, it might cost you your life. In this case, the phrase ‘curiousity kills a cat’ is absolutely true. But never quit asking yourself questions, explore your territory, your opportunities and be aware of the danger of every area. In every place, there will be a red zone, a forbidden corner, once tresspassed, you might come to a point of no return. You might be stuck forever. Therefore, continue to ask yourself questions of your surroundings, analyze everything and stay safe. Curiousity well-balanced will gain you respect, security and even your life.
