David Stork, distinguished research scientist and research director at Rambus Labs, presents a TedX Talk that challenges listeners to "think the unthinkable" by shifting away from answer-seeking to focus instead on posing good questions. Employers rank problem identification—deciding to what to work on—as the number-one indicator of creativity, while school superintendents rank it eighth.
Using Sudoku as an example, Stork demonstrates techniques for posing many questions on a topic, characteristics that make questions interesting, and strategies for seeing a topic from multiple perspectives. Good questions, says Stork,
- Are clearly stated and unambiguous;
- Have a solution;
- Have a method for being solved;
- Could lead the solver to improved solution methods;
- Show the boundaries of the problem (i.e., by answering "What is the most?" or "What is the least?");
- Are essential to the topic;
- Are not impossible and not trivial; they are just right; and
- Lead to more questions.
Answers can limit our curiosity and lead us away from new and better questions. Stork calls educators to become connoisseurs of good questions.