They all started with a question
Many breakthrough ideas or new ways of thinking can be traced back to a beautiful question, like those below. You’ll find more of these fascinating question-based “origin stories” in A More Beautiful Question.
What if you could hail a cab using your phone?
Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp had a question at the end of a snowy evening in Paris, when they tried to hail a taxi and couldn’t get one.
What if countries competed on playing fields instead of battlefields?
Did you know the Olympics started with a beautiful question? The question was raised by Baron...
Why do movie tickets cost the same for hits or duds?
Challenging students to grapple with real-life questions can help them to grasp abstract concepts,...
Why isn’t the water reaching the people who need it?
With the creation of Water.org, the engineer/activist Gary White teamed up with actor Matt Damon...
What if a video rental business were run like a health club?
The rise of a number of today’s top tech firms can be traced to a “Why doesn’t somebody …” or...
How do you fit a large golf course on a small island?
When pro golfer Jack Nicklaus was hired in the 1980s to design a golf course on Grand Cayman...
If they can put a man on the moon, why can’t they make a decent foot?
Back in 1976, long before there was a Google to field all of our queries, a young man named Van...
What if you could have all the world’s music on your hard drive?
Daniel Ek’s initial question was, “Why hasn’t anyone made a version of Napster that works for both consumers AND artists?” Then he had a second question.
Why did my candy bar melt? (And will my popcorn pop?)
During the World War II years, Percy Spencer, a self-taught engineer leading the power tube...
How might we prepare during the peace to offer help in times of war?
The exigencies of war have brought forth many a beautiful question. In 1859, a young Swiss...
Why aren’t the players urinating more?
Many companies and even entire industries can be traced back to a question—but they’re usually not...
What if a car windshield could blink?
In 1902 Alabama tourist Mary Anderson watched her New York streetcar driver struggling to see...
What if we could paint over our mistakes?
When electric typewriters became popular in the 1950s, the ribbons made it harder to erase typing...
Why do we have to wait for the picture?
Edwin Land was a brilliant inventor, sometimes described today as the Steve Jobs of his time. He...
Why should you be stuck without a bed if I’ve got an extra air mattress?
A few years ago, I wrote in the Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog about the “billion-dollar app...
If we were kicked out of the company, what do you think the new CEO would do?
Early in its history, the microprocessor company Intel found itself facing a difficult decision....
