How Asking Questions Changed The Course Of History
In the early 2000s, thousands of people in Silicon Valley came across a billboard with an unintelligible text: “{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com” While some thought: “What a waste of money”; others made it a goal to understand its message.
You may know this story; the people inquisitive enough to figure out the message found themselves on a website with another equation to solve. Those who went even further were invited to submit their resume to Google.
A small spark of curiosity changed their professional lives forever.
The Widest Door
“Being curious is better than being smart. Being motivated and curious counts for more than being smart because it leads to action”
- James Clear, Atomic Habits
There are many doors leading towards possibilities and their widths vary. Some are so narrow you need special equipment in order to pass; while the widest one is always the one led by curiosity. This desire for knowledge makes you observant of new information. When you are curious about something, your mind expects and anticipates new ideas related to it.
Without curiosity, ideas may pass right in front of you, and yet you miss them because you are not prepared to recognize them. How many great ideas may you have lost due to a lack of curiosity?
I won’t allow myself to lose information that can be transformed into opportunities; so I decided to do what it takes to strengthen my curiosity.
Ask Questions, Change Outcomes
Ground Rule: Learn curiosity’s nature. Intellectual curiosity is a soft skill; therefore you can’t learn it like you would learn programming or data analysis. It must be nurtured and developed. A way of doing this is by seeking to find deeper answers to your questions.
By searching for answers we are able to see new worlds and possibilities which are normally not visible. That’s exactly what happened to President Ronald Reagan while he watched the Movie War Games on Camp David in June 1983.
As the President of the United States watched a movie about a teenager who hacks into the computer of the North American Aerospace Defense, thinking it’s a computer game and nearly kicking off World War III, Reagan turned to General John Vessey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and asked if such a thing were possible. Unsure, Vessey promised to look into it. A week later, Vessey returned with an answer: “Mr. President, the problem is much worse than you think”. Reagan’s question culminated, fifteen months later, in a confidential national security decision directive, titled “National Policy on Telecommunications and Automated Information Systems Security”.
This sequence of events marked the first time that an American president, or a White House directive, discussed what would come to be called “cyber-warfare”.
The power of questions is infinite, just ask and see how much power you unleash.
Surrounded By Potential
While reading stories like this I ponder: How do I want to live my life? What topics and questions do I want to occupy my mind? What is the potential of those questions?
Ever since graduating from university, I have been seeking opportunities to keep learning. It turns out the world became more fascinating after formal education because I finally had time to allow myself to be led by my interests. Everywhere I look is rich with potential: How can I be a better-prepared world citizen? I started by joining a couple of amazing German Courses (I have a B2 level now). What is the best way to put my ideas out? I joined a writing course and started posting on my own website and Medium. How can I learn about different topics without a big adjustment in my everyday life? I subscribed to Masterclass.
While it may not guarantee change, intellectual curiosity equips people with the right knowledge to be able to overcome their current situation and achieve something greater; just by wondering further about topics of interest. No matter your area of expertise or your goals; this must be a paved road to success.
Get ready! We’ve entered an era where one of the most valued traits someone can have is curiosity and hunger for knowledge. Ask questions; even if it doesn’t come naturally at first, make it a habit. Your mind produces hundreds of questions during the day but we hardly speak them.
The mother of the Nobel laureate in physics, Isidor I. Rabi, asked him every day after school: “Izzy, did you ask a good question today?”. Be like Rabi’s mother and ask yourself that. And last but not least, don’t label things as boring. You are limiting potential by doing so.
Change Your Perspective
Orville Wright, one-half of the Wright brothers credited with creating, building, and flying the world’s first successful motor-operated airplane, was once told by a friend that he and his brother would always be an example of how far someone can go in life with no special advantages. He took that affirmation as an offense and responded:
“To say we had no special advantages… the greatest thing in our favor was growing up in a family where there was always much encouragement to intellectual curiosity”.
Sometimes the most overlooked actions give us the most impactful outcomes.
If you plan on devoting time to developing a new soft skill, make it this one. Stay aware, and when you have a question in mind say it out loud. Knowledge and opportunities will come your way.
The drive to learn and the thirst for knowledge is the greatest gift you can give yourself among these traits associated with it:
- Analytical and outside-the-box thinking. Intellectual curiosity fuels the passion to innovate and taps into unconventional ways of thinking. This allows people to solve age-old problems in unexpected ways. (Like flying!)
- Creativity and synthesis of thought. Intellectual curiosity helps people see the whole system and its individual pieces. Through intellectual curiosity, people can employ a systems-based approach to thinking and find links between different types of information.
- Initiative and drive. Intellectual curiosity motivates people to come up with fresh and novel ideas that they want to complete to fruition.
Whether it is getting a job at Google, releasing a world-changing policy, or creating the first motor-operated airplane; build the widest door for yourself by asking questions that can lead you to life-altering decisions.
