Parham.org

I’m in the middle of the book Freakonomics. It’s really a fabulous read and kind of hard to explain. The authors, Steven D. Levitt (an economist) and Stephen J. Dubner (a reporter for the NY Times) pose very intriguing sociological questions, connections and comparisons, and then use economic equations to answer them.

Some of the questions they ask:

Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?
What makes the perfect parent?
How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real estate agents?

The answers they deliver will surprise you.

This, from p. 89, has really started me thinking:

The first trick to asking questions is to determine if your question is a good one. Just because a question has never been asked does not make it good. Smart people have been asking questions for quite a few centuries now, so many of the questions that haven’t been asked are bound to yield interesting answers.

But if you can question something that people really care about and find an answer that may surprise them – that is, if you can overtrun the conventional wisdom – then you may have some luck.

I’ve been thinking about what MY question(s) might be. Thinking about what is important to me, what is interesting to me, what do I already know and what do I want to learn about.

I haven’t come to any conclusions yet, but my mind is swirling with ideas. And I’m looking for more inspiration. So I ask you this: what’s YOUR question.