john1

How do you ask high quality questions?

9 posts in this topic

I've been thinking about this for a week or two after I watched the "life is a maze" episode. I came up with some things on my own, but I thought it was best to ask here. I'm starting to realize how important asking certain questions to certain people is and how much it can help me.

So what constitutes a "good question" in your guys' opinion?

I came up with some guidelines on my own: Not too broad or deep (what's the meaning of life?), not too shallow (what's the best brand of frozen blueberries at wholefoods?), not passive-aggressive (why are you stupid?), not stupid (How much could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?), not trivial (when did WW1 start?), not too long or convoluted, use proper grammar, don't be too fancy, don't be too casual, be polite, show your gratitude ahead of time, etc. -- Are all of these good points, or did I miss some stuff?

Also, are the rules for asking a question in person different from asking people on a forum like this?

Also, how do I incorporate all my points and convey my message to the other person concisely? I feel like when I ask questions I always forget some point and/or I always misconvey my message and get some unintended answers. A day later I always think, "oh, I forgot to add this," or "oh, the other person misunderstood me."

To overcompensate this I add so much detail, end up telling my whole life's story, and make the question so long that I think the person doesn't want to read the whole thing or listen to me. I think I've done this here: I've added so much stuff in this message box that I feel like you'll look at it and simply ignore it because of how long it is.

I really want to take advantage of this resource, so how do I (politely) squeeze all the information out of the person I'm asking the question to. I don't want to come off as annoying or an asshole, but I just want to get the most out of the question, because it can really help me.

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I think it depends on intent and what you want out of the question. You should probably contemplate this before every question. Like, what am I getting out of asking this? Does it even make sense to ask this? Is there a better way of getting this info? What's the benefit of asking this person?

For example, the question "what's the meaning of life?" could be a good or bad question depending on why you are asking. If you are asking for your own personal insight into the meaning of life, the answer you get will probably be too broad or vague because the question is also too broad or vague. 

Or, you could be asking for an entirely different reason. For example, you might be asking that question to try and gauge whether the person you are talking to is into philosophy, or how much they know about non-duality, and so in that case it could be a decent question because you aren't even looking for a good answer, but rather some insight into the personality of the person.

54 minutes ago, john1 said:

Also, how do I incorporate all my points and convey my message to the other person concisely?

If you want to, you can simply make your message or intent explicit after the question, for example: "Hey what did you eat for breakfast today? I'm asking because I am curious about your diet, I think it might be related to your health issues." This way, they will feel inclined to give even more health-related info that goes beyond just their diet, because they know the main purpose of your question is to pinpoint their health issues.

 


"God is not a conclusion, it is a sudden revelation. When you see a rose it is not that you go through a logical solipsism, 'This is a rose, and roses are beautiful, so this must be beautiful.' The moment you see it, the head stops running thoughts. On the contrary, your heart starts running. It is something totally different from the idea of truth." -Osho

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When you start asking questions more and better ones may arise too :) 


"You Create Magic" 

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Asking a question about a question.. 

Meta talk. 

A high quality question? 

 

Here's a website for generating questions in clusters. 

https://answerthepublic.com/

--- 

Who, what, where, when, and why. How

--- 

Open ended questions are pretty powerful bc they seek for more information. 

---

Why questions tend to be very powerful. It's digging deeper

Why are we here

Why do you

Why do I

Why is the sky blue 

.. 

When is more historical..

When was... 

When can 

When will

When did

..

What seems more.. I have no clue.

What was.. 

What is.. 

What it do.. 

What can..

 

..

Where seems more location based or research based.. 

Where can we 

What 

.. 

Who questions are more directed at people or self. 

Who am I? 

Who are you? 

Who is God? 

Who wants 

Who likes

Who's ya daddy

.. 

How questions seem a bit more instructional and breaking things apart. 

How do I

How can we

How is this

How are you

How will this 

How does time function 

How did we get here

How do 

.. 

I'd say how and why questions are pretty powerful. 

.. 

I think self oriented questions are insightful. Knowing yourself. 

.. 

Breadth vs depth. 

I guess it depends on how much verticle questioning vs horizontal. If you focus on one topic and ask 1000 questions you'll eventually find something neat. Yet the deeper you go, the less people are interested in talking about it. 

Vertical questioning. I guess just being curious and exposure. Constantly wondering.. Eventually you end up somewhere that seems high quality. 

 

... 

How do you find a diamond? 

... 

Could argue the image I sent is wrong. Figured it seemed like something reasonable to add. 

Some people are pretty interesting. 

 

 

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Edited by Ethan1

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Have you watched Leo's video on YouTube about this topic?

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Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions. Don't be afraid to look stupid. Just ask what you reeeeally want to know. If you're trying to control the outcome by first proving what you know then it's not a real question. 


My Youtube Channel- Light on Earth “We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the Secret sits in the middle and knows.”― Robert Frost

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When you are truly Awake. There are no more questions to ask. You are GOD! Everything is GOD! Are you still asking questions or did you AWAKE TO THE TRUTH? 

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Old post


 "Unburdened and Becoming" - Bon Iver

                            ◭"89"

                  

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