It’s not just teachers who say that there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Psychologists and sociologists agree on the fact that the complexity of a question has nothing to do with how much or how little someone understands something.

In fact, Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman devised a legendary learning technique called the Feynman Technique. This technique enabled him to learn basic Japanese in a week and all it involves it understanding something, then dumbing it down to its most basic bits, then explaining it. If a Nobel prize winning physicist isn’t ashamed of asking stupid questions, we shouldn’t be either.

                                     

The concept of asking “stupid questions” is always been encouraged by good teachers. Why shouldn’t we carry it forward outside of the classroom as well?

The most significant aspect of asking seemingly stupid questions is that your doubts will be nipped in the bud. You will never risk being dubbed as an ill-informed individual. Doubts are like seeds which sprout into parasitic weeds if left unattended. So, these stupid questions offer the advantage of making learning faster. You can’t always be an expert. If you ask these basic questions, you will at least have the working knowledge to complete the given task.

Another significant advantage of asking these ‘stupid’ questions is that you will add value to your team. Suppose your team is discussing an operating process you don’t know much about. Instead of secretly going and self-researching the operating process, you can simply ask someone on your team to briefly explain it. That way, instead of wasting time learning the term, you’ll be able to help your team find a solution to the problem thereby improving the performance of your team.

Then, stupid questions allow us to sort the black swans from the grey swans. Black swans are highly unpredictable events that could be termed as unknown-unknows that completely disrupt your life. Grey swans, however, are known-unknowns. You at least see the problem coming and can thus prepare yourself. When surveys ask seemingly stupid questions, that’s what they are trying to do, they are trying to expose the limit of the group’s knowledge. Answers to basic questions generally shine the light on incorrect assumptions as well as information that’s very prevalent these days. Once this data is collected then analyzed, the risk of missing information, opportunities, and gaps in knowledge is eliminated.

Lastly, stupid questions provide clarity and clarity leads to newer perspectives and outlooks on seemingly difficult problems.

Asking “stupid questions” is what surveys do to identify all the relevant markers of any given market. The answers to these questions help companies work in tandem to find proactive solutions to difficult problems. If you don’t believe us, take the words od Terry Pratchett to heart!