A More Beautiful Question

A More Beautiful Question will teach you how to ask more and better questions, showing you the power that the right questions have to transform your life for the better.

Questions set humans apart from other species on earth. And not only that, but they are vital to our survival and success. When we investigate the world around us we learn to be creative and come up with new ideas that improve our lives. It’s important to know what you don’t know, but until you ask, you’ll never figure that out so you can learn more.

We’re lucky that each of us are born with this magnificent trait. If you are a parent or have been around kids recently, you know how many questions children ask. One estimate put the number at 40,000 questions a day from kids between two and four! Our research indicates that children don’t just seek attention either. They genuinely want to know about the world around them.

Sadly, the American education system smothers this valuable skill. To be successful in school, you have to become good at learning facts so you can do well on tests. There’s no room to nourish curiosity when you’re worried about useless facts like what year the war of 1812 was. But this is why this book is so powerful, because wherever you are, you can learn to ask beautiful questions that will change your life.

Let’s start with the first two questions. We begin with “why?” This is known as a naive question because of the innocent, child-like wonder that it represents. It’s good to wonder why things are a certain way because it helps us take apart and understand complex issues. For example, if I ask a politician why the country has run out of money, they must give a straightforward answer. Knowing the reason for the oversight can help improve the dire financial situation. “Why?” questions have their limits though. To go from simply getting answers to finding solutions to problems, we must ask “why not?” The power in this second beautiful question is in its ability to make us question our basic assumptions about the world. Many people just do what they do because “this is the way it’s always been done,” without ever questioning it. When you ask “why not?” you unleash the power of an innovative mind. This kind of thinking has changed lives, and our entire world. Take Airbnb for example. This revolutionary company began when two flatmates asked “why not offer conference goers an inexpensive place to stay in our own flat?” Their “why not?” question solved the problem of hotels around these events booking out, and changed our world at the…