Thursday, December 4, 2008

What's over there?

It's not a deep philosophical question, but it's an energizing question that gets you off your butt to go exploring.

If it wasn't for that question, would any European have discovered North America? What about South America? What's over there? And Australia, what's over there then?

Would you ever find that great new restaurant or the coffee shop with the best views to sit and have coffee in without that question?

If it wasn't for that question, would everyone convince themselves that where they are is "good enough" and they never need to move again? And isn't "never need to move again" the definition of death?

Some questionnaire developers want to know the attitude of the responders, so they ask questions about your attitude towards change "Are you a change seeker or do you like things to stay the same?". In truth the answer is, of course, "It depends" on the situation. The orbit of the planet - yes, that would be a good thing to stay the same, we just don't want to know what would happen if the planet stopped moving. Changing newspaper boxes so you have one big one instead of a dozen little different colored ones all over the sidewalk - yes, you could change that and life would go on, be less cluttered, yup, change that.

But if they asked "Does the question 'What's over there?' get you interested in seeking out the answer?" that is much easier to answer, and may give them a better idea about the attitude of their responders. It would be easier to get rid of the "dead wood" that way, wouldn't it? Knuck, knuck, ooh, I like that one.

I think this has got to be one of my favourite questions. A whole world of possibilities are open to you when you ask this question.

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