"Half the job of getting the right answer is finding the right question."
Sitting alone in my cave, as a troglodyte is wont to do, my tranquility is interrupted by a question that floats uninvited into my mind. Annoyed that I don't know the answer, I go next door to consult my neighbour, only to find that he has decamped for the season to his winter cave in Palm Springs. Discouraged, I make the fatiguing trek to my local library, where the musty smell of old books and the predictable peace and quiet quickly put me to sleep. When I awake, the question still nags at me, so I undertake the onerous task of opening a book and I begin reading.
A few pages later, I make a startling discovery. It turns out that unanswered questions have been at the heart of intellectual progress for centuries! Even more, it seems that learning how to ask a good question is a skill we all need. Doctors need to ask questions to diagnose illness. Police officers need to ask questions when investigating a disturbance. Lawyers need to cross-examine witnesses. Journalists, it seems, find it necessary to ask questions of just about everyone.
I also learned that discovering the right question can be tricky. Half the job of getting the right answer is finding the right question. Who would have guessed?
The more I read, the more I realized that the right question can open up completely new subjects of investigation. The right question can motivate the scientist, the novelist, the voter and the small-business owner alike. A good question can help each of us see the world and ourselves in dramatically new ways.
Rather annoyingly, the more I thought about this, the more I was intrigued. And the harder it was to get back to sleep.
A. Troglodyte began writing at Oxford University over a century ago. Recently, he (Or she? Or they? - no one really knows) has re- emerged to give advice to today's talented, hard-working college and university students.
