On asking questions (and questions and questions…)

I got better at a lot of things over the past five years.

One of those was asking questions—or, to be more exact—asking questions that no one else would ask.

There is, contrary to popular advice, such a thing as a dumb question. A dumb question has an answer that you could have figured out on your own if you’d paused and thought about it for a moment. Or an answer that Google would have readily given you.

“Get better at asking questions” is advice I wish I’d given myself at the very start of my career.

I focused too much on “What” and “How” and “Who” and “Where.”

Not nearly enough on “Why.”