"Some questions need eye contact. Some questions need silence. Some questions need the telltale crack in our own voice that tells you, you've finally said something true." - Ken Woodward
"Some questions need eye contact. Some questions need silence. Some questions need the telltale crack in our own voice that tells you, you've finally said something true." - Ken Woodward
We live in a moment when almost any question can be answered instantly, eloquently, and for free. That is a remarkable thing. It is also worth examining carefully.
In this episode, Ken Woodward draws a distinction between two kinds of questions: tool questions, which AI handles brilliantly, and threshold questions, which require something the machine cannot provide. Time. Risk. The sound of your own voice saying something true for the first time.
This is not an episode about the dangers of AI. It is an episode about the quiet cost of convenience, what we give up when we trade a live, risky question for a fast, polished answer. And what it looks like to protect the capacity for wonder in an age that makes outsourcing almost everything feel like efficiency.
Three practices. A few guardrails. And one question to carry with you when you close the machine.
This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.
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Keep questioning!
Episode Notes
00:00 Hearing Something True
00:27 Welcome to Curated Questions
01:50 Late Night AI Scroll
03:05 Wonder and Instant Answers
03:53 Tool vs Threshold Questions
05:20 When Wisdom Sounds Easy
06:57 Outsourcing the Hard Edge
08:44 Wonder Versus Numbness
09:32 Three Practices to Protect Wonder
09:59 Practice One Question Triage
11:02 Practices Two and Three
12:55 Guardrails and Final Challenge
15:42 Parting Thoughts
Resources Mentioned