Questions over Answers

The smartest person in the room isn’t the one with all the answers. It’s the one asking the questions no one else dares to ask.

Sancho Panza didn’t have the education or eloquence of Don Quixote. But he had something more valuable: the courage to ask honest questions. “Master, are you sure those are giants? They look like windmills to me.”

What This Means in Practice

• Ask “why” before jumping to “how”
• Challenge assumptions, even popular ones
• Admit when you don’t understand something
• Let questions lead discovery, not ego
• Value curiosity over certainty

Common Traps

• Pretending to understand when you don’t
• Jumping to solutions before defining the problem
• Avoiding “dumb” questions to look smart
• Letting meetings end without asking “what are we actually deciding?”

Remember

“The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions.” — Claude Lévi-Strauss

The right question beats the wrong answer. Every time.