No stupid questions

Marketing guru Seth Godin wrote today about what to do when smart people are hard to understand. His first suggestion—a great one—is to ask for a definition or an explanation right away. “You’ll be amazed,” he writes, “at how smart and engaging this makes you seem if you say it at the right time.”

As a student and a sometimes-teacher of science and math, I cringed a little. I think Seth is right in general, but I think that statements such as this one perpetuate people’s fear of asking questions, which runs rampant in my classes and seminars. Sure, I could look brilliant if I ask at the right time, but … what if it’s not the right time? I could look like an idiot! Then the expected value calculation is something like, (big reward [positive payout] x small probability) + (big embarrassment [negative payout] x big probability), which probably comes out to zero at best.

I’ve been in those situations where the question I thought was stupid turns out to be really crucial. And (I think) I’ve impressed a professor or two at those times. But I’ve also been in plenty of situations where I didn’t know something everyone expected me to know, or my question betrayed a fundamental lack of understanding of what we were talking about in the first place. That made me feel pretty stupid.

The fact is, it’s always important to ask. Not knowing doesn’t mean you’re not smart—intelligence is different from knowledge. That means that asking the question can only make you look as though you don’t have the knowledge required to answer the question (which is true); it does not reflect on your personal intelligence. That’s why we like to say that there are no stupid questions. In order to help people feel comfortable asking when they need or want to know, it’s important to separate these concepts as much as possible. I think that the seemingly-reassuring “It might make you look smart!” just reinforces the connection and reminds you that you might not.

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June 5, 2009 · Written by
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