EscapefromExpansion
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"Question" , simple yet mysterious
🕑 Added 2023-11-28 02:31:36 +0000 UTC(This is from my personal experience. Read with cautions)
I never question the power of "Asking the right question" before. From the place I'm from, everyone were taught to ask question if we want to get better and clever. But we've never been taught how to ask the right question, and don't know what benefit we will get from it.
each question has there own benefit...I saw someone who want to improve themselves but they ask only 1 type of question...that bring them nowhere...it's not their false, they just don't know how.
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from my experience, This level of question will help you get what you want...and would say, each question brings different benefit...
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Level 1 : "What?" --- What is it?, What its name?, What is it definition?, What happen in the past?
These type of question is a starting point of all. You just learn how to call it. It's like a dictionary knowledge, definition knowledge, or storytelling knowledge...you will know what it is.
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Level 2 : "How?" --- How to use it?, How to make it happen?, How to call it?, How to operate it?
In this level, you study how to use it, like reading from instruction manual, do it just as teacher said. remember a procedure of it. just like cooking, building, painting, even solve some math problems, even you don't ask why it works, you still can solve it.
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Level 3 : "Why?" --- Why it works?, Why 2 things are different? Why it has to be like this?
This level, the curiosity brings you to dig deeper into its mechanics. The reason of Procedure. This will lead you into 2 different ways,
1) You will get the answers from people who asked the same question as you. it leads you to "What" question again, a storytelling. If your curiosity end here, you will believe it without knowing it's true or not. But sometimes it works.
2) But if after you ask why and you get an answer...and you still ask more why, it leads you to the "How" question where you will give yourself a reason how things work. You may see boundaries or properties of things that lock itself into this path, or you may see it might conflict itself if you shuffle the procedure. or it may reveals its algorithm right before your eyes.
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Level 4 : "When?" --- When to use it?, When not to use it?
When you know it to the point of put it to use, these question will give you more insight of things you study. I will reveal some properties no one told you before. You'll know the limit of it. You will discover what it can do, what it cannot do. Just like managing human resource..."put the right man into a right job within a right time". because some properties can't be described by words, so test it at work will reveal this potential.
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Level 5 : "What if?" --- What will happen if...?, What if this thing can...?, What if I don't use it?
"What if..." it's a powerful question. It's the question every genius people ask. It bring us a new topic to discover. It's a root of creation. and it leads to the most powerful learning method of mankind..."A Hypothesis"
Hypothesis -- is a predicted answer that need to be confirm...but starting with "hallucinating" yourself that you already got the answer. and a good Hypothesis must be answer with "Yes" and "No" only.
to use "What if...?" You must have a prior knowledge of things you study. because this question plays with boundary, condition, property and timing of what you want to learn. it's not a first question you should ask.
Downside of " What if?" question are...
1) If it can't develop to a Hypothesis..."What if...?" is the most useless question. It leads you nowhere.
2) If you have not enough prior knowledge and try to create a Hypothesis...you may not have enough knowledge to create a testing system...or test it in a wrong way, which lead to a fail experiment. Actually, it's a good thing to test it out...but you may not able to endure the long-term, repeatable failures and may discard it in the end before you get the right answer.
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But you don't have to ask the questions in order...you can start with "When?" and back to "What?" and "How?". It might give you much better benefit.
Curiosity is the first step of creativity. Don't afraid to ask questions and seek for answers. I wish this will bring a new path to your life.
