QUESTIONS
Four criteria to reconsider:
1. Is this the right question?
2. Is this the right person to whom this right question is being addressed?
3. Is this the right time to address this right question being asked of the right person?
4. Is this the right time and place to address this right question to the right person being asked to answer it?
Question: how to ask a question?
But more important: why are we asking a question? Where does the question come from? perhaps more important than this, what do we intend to do with the answer?
It takes energy to provide an answer to a question. a burning question carries with it half of the energy required to provide the answer. a question powered only by curiosity carries little energy, so the person providing the answer has to do a lot more work. question that is not really a question, perhaps a statement or opinion which merely assumes the form of the question, takes energy from the exchange.
Asking a question is a big ask, of anyone who takes answers seriously. Not solemnly, but seriously. Any answer necessarily comes from the floor above that of where the question originates: technically, this might be referred to as a meta-answer.
The quality of the question determines the quality of the answer.
If the question determines the answer, it’s not properly a question. So, either-or precludes an answer outside the selection of either Answer A or Answer B.
How we frame the question is key.
Very few people seem able to ask a straightforward question, if I make a judgement based on the proliferation of questions that come my way. It often seems that a statement / opinion / criticism is being made rather than q question being asked, and the form of that presents itself as a purported question.
A burning question is a question that invites an authentic answer. Why? It is real, it has necessity. This necessity carries with it a quality of energy that invites and enables an answer to be found. How does one measure the
How may one recognize a burning question?
The question is both personal and impersonal: ie is both subjective and objective.
It has heat.
The price that is willing to be paid for an answer; like leaving a successful professional life to find an answer.
The form is singular (ie not a series of contingent and qualifying questions).
It is simple, may be expressed in one sentence with words of one and two syllables.
Necessity: I must have this answer in order to continue living.
What equipment do you use? carries little heat or necessity for me. But perhaps it may for a person asking the question, for example if they are interested in their own approach to Soundscaping. If so, they will already have found the answer in several places online, so there is no need to withdraw from me the small amount of useful energy available to respond to questions of value. Otherwise, I am being asked to do the work of someone else, which they are too lazy to do for themselves. As Biff Rieflin would reply: That’s a question for Google. Or any search engine of your choice.
Robert Fripp
Thursday 21st. November, 2024;
Middle England.
