Asking Questions

The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life. - Confucius

Back when we had in person lectures, I noticed that not many people would ask questions. I didn’t either. It wasn’t that I didn’t have any to ask but rather I was scared to ask them. Asking a question in a hundred person class takes courage. I feel that tinge of fear before I ask a question. My inner dialogue tells me that, “It’s a stupid question and everyone’s going to think your dumb.”

As kids we ask a lot of questions. On average a four year old kid will asks 300 questions a day. But as we grow up the number of questions we ask decline. Eventually we lose this ability in the fear of looking stupid.

The irony is that the real fool is the one who doesn’t ask a question. For the one that does ask is the one who learns.