Beware of demanding to be fed with answers
The most interesting—and useful—discoveries are those you find yourself
Thought of this while reviewing my newsletter inbox and a Quora question came up, after I just finished the book Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned.
What's the point of asking questions to get an easy, reassuring, answer that makes us feel good and safe? Yet it's what we seem to do most of the time.
This type of thinking leads to status quo.
Or questions meant to accomplish an fixed objective, or at least we think are going to help us accomplish an objective?
This type of thinking leads to deception. You don't know what you don't know. Asking questions about what you think will bring you closer to your objective will likely lead you into what you already know, thus stagnation.
I think the best answers come from when we ask questions out of pure curiosity. When you truly wonder about things, instead of constraining your thinking in safe waters.
By constantly looking for and obsessing about finding solutions, you're precluding at all time your brain from insight. When forcing a way of thinking, you're going exactly against the brain's natural ability to discover and understand—"uncover"—nature, reality and how it all works. Exposure and curiosity are far more effective at generating ideas, finding gems, and solving problems.