To Be Happy, Be Stupid
The creativity police opened my eyes
Many people live mundane and boring lives. Do you know why? Because they have all the answers.
Knowing everything you need to do will make your life boring too.
A baby is the happiest, he has the most exciting life — he doesn’t know anything. He is curious, everything is an opportunity for exploration.
To be happy be stupid.
People who think they are smart, tend to ask no questions. They live behind the firm belief that they know everything.
Have you ever been in classes or meetings? You can practically see the unasked questions flying by.
Just me?
Be free, be stupid.
I witnessed a classmate ask, what we would call, a stupid question.
He asked the teacher, “Don’t the satellites get wet due to the rain?”
No stupid, they are in space
Everyone laughed at him.
Later we found out, many people had never thought of it that way. They were laughing because the others were.
Where is the fun in knowing
I'll tell you who knows what his tomorrow looks like. Someone stuck in a dead-end job he doesn’t like.
If you don’t know anything there is everything to look forward to.
Your life is a thousand-page book. If you end it at 200 think of the 800 pages that will be wasted. Printed blank.
Creativity comes through questions — not answers
I learned this a few months back. It seemed like the holy grail then.
I have had the dose of quotes that go, “Seek the questions not the answers” but I never knew what they really meant.
Here is how the creativity police got through to me.
Schools ask 2+3=?
There is only one right answer — 5.
However, if the question is shaped as,
?+?=5
There is an infinite number of answers. Everyone has to think.
The first method teaches us that there is only one right answer. In the second method, we have to navigate through a plethora of answers.
Hooray for Question 2!
Creativity comes from the question, not the answer
Answers put a full stop to reality
Jim Carrey famously said that he didn't like selfies.
“Because they stop everything”
It is powerful.
Similar is the case with answers. If you know a particular answer, that is a full stop.
Questions keep forming new answers.
When you discuss something with someone or debate a topic, this is particularly evident.
You come to think about questions you never had because you never thought of it that way.
When the other person gives his input on the impending topic, he gives another point of view. He makes you think.
New questions come into your head.
We should ask more questions.
If I come to you and ask “What is the world shaped like?”
You will probably laugh at me and think I am stupid.
But what if my next question was, “Why is it shaped like that?”
Is everything else in space shaped the same way?
I asked a question not many know the answer to, and that is the point.
Not knowing the answer to a fairly obvious question caused me to ask new questions.
I get preached your knowledge on the shape of the world, you benefit from my curiousness causing us both to think together, about another question.
If this conversation keeps going we could be asking each other questions no one ever asked, coming to conclusions no one ever did.
Stupid people listen because they have to
If there is a book out there that has everything to know about in this universe, it would be amazing.
At the same time, our collective knowledge would probably not even equate to a full stop in front of it.
Listening increases knowledge. If you speak, you are simply saying what you know.
The more you speak, the more the value of what you say falls.
Readily available=Not readily sought.
You have to find the equilibrium in the demand and supply.
Knowing is selfish, asking is profitable
The demand for luxury brands is high because not everyone can buy them.
Everything you see around you is a question
Everything made around you was someone asking a question.
Around you are nothing but questions.
How do I do this? Does this mean this? Can I do this?
Questions shape reality.
Make your own reality, ask your own questions.
Takeaway
Happiness=Stupidity
The more questions you have, the happier you are.
You are always excited, you become a student of the world. Learning is your drug.
As long as you keep asking yourself questions, you will keep finding a reason to get up with a smile on your face.
Be a baby, ask questions, be stupid.
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