Best of the blog
The most-popular and noteworthy posts from the first 10 years — both by category and Warren’s “Top 30”
Warren’s “Top 30” Posts
Asking “hindsight questions” to truly learn from past experiences
In Big Think’s new “Hindsight” series, I talk about how we can find promising seeds of potential growth and improvement embedded in our past successes as well as in our failures. But we must be...
Top 10 Critical Thinking Books
Critical thinking may be THE issue of our times. If you want to better understand what critical thinking is these “top 10” books stand out from the crowd.
Why do I believe what I believe? (And what if I’m wrong?) (Excerpt)
It isn’t easy to think about your own thinking, let alone to question it. It requires us to see from the outside in and ask questions about what we find.
5 Ways to Help Students Become Better Questioners
Suggestions (based on input from question-friendly teachers, schools, programs, and organizations) on how to encourage more questioning in the classroom and hopefully, beyond it.
What is the evidence? (And how do I weigh it?) [Excerpt]
The old media gatekeepers are gone (for better or worse) and there is no reliable filter to separate good information from bad—except for the filter within each of us, the “built-in baloney detector” that runs on skeptical questions.
What is a beautiful question?
Questions should be ambitious but I also think they should be actionable. So here in one sentence is my highly-subjective definition of a beautiful question.
The 8 superpowers of questioning
I created a classroom poster that frames questioning as a set of “superpowers” that can help you explore, think like a ninja, discover new possibilities, create cool new things, and maybe even change the world.
Why do kids ask so many questions—and why do they stop?
When preschoolers ask ‘why’ they’re not trying to annoy adults or simply prolong a conversation—they’re actually trying to get to the bottom of things.
What makes questioners different from other people?
Questioners move from asking to action . . . and 7 other things that set questioners apart.
These 5 questions are “creativity killers.” Stop asking them.
Questions can fire the imagination and feed your creativity. However some questions can undermine creative confidence or cause us to misdirect our efforts.
Find your passion with these 8 thought-provoking questions
Whether you’re starting out or considering a possible change in direction, asking yourself the right questions is critical.
Einstein and questioning
If Einstein were alive today, he would see a world in which questioning has become more important than ever before. But he might also be left wondering why we still don’t encourage questioning or teach it to our children.
36 questions that can lead to love
Researcher Arthur Aron discovered not a love potion, but a well-crafted and strategically designed series of questions that result in a strong connection.
When “just asking questions” does more harm than good
George Carlin and Carl Sagan encouraged the asking of skeptical questions. What might they make of today’s world, where so many people do seem to be asking skeptical questions, about pretty much everything??
How asking questions at work can help you
In today’s rapidly-changing workplace, we must all continuously ask some version of the questions “How is my job changing?” and “How might I do it better?”
