Turning Good Questions into Good Answers

" You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions."- Naguib, Mahfouz

Has it ever occured to you just how many questions children ask? It seems to matter not where they are or who they’re with or what they are doing, they inevitably seem (much to adult irritation) to have questions. This is understandable as questions are a significant part of the way children learn about their world (right up alongside putting things in their mouth and up their nose). It seems, to me anyways, that as we grow older we begin to lose our desire and passion to question. We have, tragically,  learned to stop asking questions. Questions, those things which are critical to gaining knowledge and understanding. For it is only by asking questions that we are forced to discover the answers. It is only by questioning that we venture down unfamiliar paths and it is often down these paths that we find ( or accidentally bump into while stumbling around in the dark) new ideas or information. 

But alas I digress (well what did you expect this is my first blog after all). We are, I think, supposed to comment on getting good answers out of good questions. That to me seems to imply that all questions are good. For that matter are all questions good? To know what is good you must experience evil or to know what hot is you have to experience cold. I think questions work kind of the same way. You have to have bad questions so as to know what a good question is otherwise what is there about the question that makes it good? Well lucky for us the notes tell us what makes a good question. Or do they? as all the answers appear to be in the form of questions themselves. Oh dear.