Q
The Hidden Power of Questions in a World That Wants Answers
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- £10.99
Publisher Description
'Q is one of those rare books that hands you back a capability you didn't realise you'd lost' DANIEL H. PINK
'Wonderful ... Immensely entertaining and compelling' SPECTATOR
Our lives are shaped by questions: they are how we connect, persuade and flourish. But we live in a world that wants answers.
Questions are engines of learning, catalysts for connection, and drivers of change. They direct our attention and make us feel closer to loved ones and strangers alike. In fact, we are the only species that truly asks questions of one another.
But school trains us to answer, not ask. Workplaces reinforce that, and technology feeds us solutions before we’ve described the problem. The result is that we live in an answer-rich, question-poor world. Yet, from doctors’ surgeries to courtrooms to dating, the ability to ask questions determines our experiences. In a world obsessed by answers, asking better questions is powerful.
Q takes us on a transformative journey into the art and science of questioning and will shift your perspective on the world. In a captivating narrative from the death of Socrates to the age of AI, Lani Watson draws on research in psychology, philosophy and neuroscience to show how questions play a vital role in our individual lives and in our shared human story.
Q will make you think about the questions you ask and the ones you don’t. It is a life-enhancing invitation to harness the hidden power of our most underappreciated human skill.
'Excellent. Q will alter how you interact with the world' DAVID EDMONDS
'An exhilarating and wise book. This is what philosophy should be – fizzing, sparkling and catalytic' CHARLES FOSTER
'By giving us back a simple tool we've had all along, Q empowers us all. This is a book that could change lives' INDIA RAKUSEN
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Philosopher Wilson asserts in her fascinating debut that questions are central to everything from interpersonal bonds to the health of society. She traces the questioning instinct to 450 million ago, when an explosion of biodiversity gave rise to a "range of novel behaviors" like exploratory information seeking. This automatic behavior "made the leap... to questioning proper" around 230 million to 270 million years later, when advances in cognition allowed animals to "intentionally direct their own attention and... seek information in an autonomous way." Posing a question sets off a dopamine spike in the human brain's reward system; the more curiosity provoking the question, the more actively the brain responds. Children are indefatigable questioners—one study showed that young children ask on average 107 questions per hour in conversation with adults—but the habit drops off when kids enter school, where success is measured in answers. This is a pity, Wilson argues, since questions promote imagination, learning, and novel solutions, along with enhancing interpersonal relationships. Wilson wisely advocates for a shift from today's answer-driven society to one where curiosity "outweighs our fear of the unfamiliar and unknown," and shares tips for cultivating a "questioning mindset" by, for example, noticing a new detail in a familiar view. Energetic and insightful, this will inspire readers to take a fresh look at the world around them.
