SHORT TAKES: Ask Questions!

By: M.Zulkifli

ASK QUESTIONS. And I don’t just mean this as a scenario in school or the office. But on a personal level, with ourselves, all the time. Come across something you don’t know, ask yourself the question, “What is it, really?” What happens next is that it triggers a process within your subconscious. It will search for the answer in one way or another. 

Tell me, have you ever experienced this; you’ve driven past this row of shophouses probably a hundred times before. One day, you need to buy new tiles for your bathroom floor. You wonder where you can find them. Then you drive home and pass by that row of shophouses and lo and behold – you see a shop selling bathroom tiles! It’s been right there for the longest time, but you notice it now because you asked the question. Otherwise, you could still drive by the same shops for the next 5 years and all you can remember is the KFC next door.

Or how about this; at an office meeting, the boss wants everyone’s thoughts on the gig economy. You’re stumped and ask yourself, where can I find info on this? You then pick up an old magazine at the pantry that you’ve flipped through many times, and suddenly, it’s right there: A 10-page feature on the gig economy you never noticed before. Simply because you never had the question in your mind. 

You know how the “recommended” feature of your favourite apps and websites have now grown into ridiculously smart algorithms? The minute you search for something, you’ll be bombarded with a thousand things related to it. Well, humans are blessed by God with the greatest algorithm of all. 

Ask the question, and the answer will find you. It might not come in the way you expect it sometimes, but that “stumbling upon the answers”, is not really accidental either.

It’s no wonder that most of humanity’s brilliant minds have said this quality’s one of the most important parts of the puzzle. Albert Einstein says: “The most important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” On Newton, Bernard Baruch quipped: “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.” “Human beings are curious by nature,” says Aristotle. And Einstein again said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

Surely, we don’t think the questioning stops once university is over and we gain a piece of paper that says we now know SOME stuff. And in today’s world, lifelong learning (and curiosity) is more than just about self satisfaction, but crucial in ensuring lifelong employment (more on that another time).

Of course, the challenge today is really about WHAT questions are we asking, and what are we curious about? Scrolling our timelines, are we more curious about how people got their money to buy those latest shoes on Black Friday, or something a tad more important (like why are the Malayan tigers going extinct)?

And here’s another thing. When sometimes curiosity is triggered within us, we ourselves can have the tendency to shut it down by doing the whole, “Apabenda ntah” or “Ish tak faham aku” thing. Our brain picks this up, and consequently closes the issue for you. What a missed opportunity!

And seriously, it’s not at all difficult to look things up in this day and age. Find a word you don’t know? Google it. Read the various definitions. Try using it the next time you’re writing something. Struggling to understand an issue people are ranting about on Twitter? Watch a TED Talk video on it. Find the “101” explanation. Ask a friend who might know. Just don’t be lazy.

If you’re busy, write it into your phone. Or send an email to yourself with the question as a subject line. Whatever happens, DO NOT lose that opportunity to learn.

So really, ASK QUESTIONS.