"A statement claims to be finished, and that claim is exactly what time comes back to audit. A question never claimed to be finished." - Ken Woodward
Some ideas arrive like lightning. Others crawl. In 2016, one of my slowest ideas began with a turtle in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Ten years later, it’s still walking.
This episode explores a new study on the “Aha! glow.” Professional writers and physicists logged their most creative ideas, then rated them again six months later. The physicists’ flashes of insight held up. The writers’ faded. The quiet ideas grew in both groups.
I revisit my year of daily questions, where the statements aged and the questions didn’t. I also return to Hank, an 85-year-old I nearly walked past during my walk of every street in DC, because I’d already decided he had little to say.
Along the way: submarine navigation, the cocked hat, and why one bearing is never a fix.
The question I’m carrying: What answer am I trusting because of how it felt when it arrived?
This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.
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Keep questioning!