Rex Trulove
My grandmother was quite fond of saying, “The only stupid question is the one that isn’t asked.” This was usually in response to someone saying, “I have a stupid question.” I find my grandmother’s saying one of great wisdom and have used it many times myself. However, there is also wisdom in thinking about what you really want to know before asking the question.
Too often, people rush to ask a question without giving the question much thought. They know in their own mind what they want to know, but they don’t think about what they are actually asking. The resulting question isn’t stupid if they ask it, but it can be rather silly.
For example, have you ever asked someone what a particular food tasted like?
If you really think about it, you’ll realize that this question is nearly impossible to answer in a meaningful way. How do you describe the flavor of something that someone has never tried? There have been multiple times that I’ve been asked what venison or bear meat tastes like. If the person hasn’t tasted either, how can I adequately describe what either meat tastes like?
In turn, this leads to answers that are quite inaccurate. If the person then tries the food they asked about, it is likely that they are going to be disappointed or confused.
I have a case in point. I’ve heard people ask what rattlesnake tastes like. The most common answer that I’ve heard has been, “Rattlesnake tastes like chicken.”
For the record, I’ve eaten rattlesnake. Ignoring for a moment that it naturally tastes different depending on how it is prepared, I can say without a doubt that rattlesnake doesn’t taste like chicken. So what does it taste like? Well, rattlesnake tastes rather like rattlesnake.
If I gave any other answer to the question, I wouldn’t be accurate. Yet, it isn’t the answer that is the problem. The issue is with the question. Note that the question isn’t even, “What does rattlesnake taste vaguely similar to?”
The point is that people need to give more thought to the questions they are asking rather than relying on the accuracy of the answer. There are no stupid questions, but there can be quite a few that are silly enough to be mostly unanswerable.
There is no alternative of mother . you can buy all things with money but not mother once lost
Ok, Rattlesnake (I’ve tried it as well, both in Chili and on flatbread) does in fact taste like Rattlesnake. I agree it does not taste like chicken!
I think what confuses so many people is that others usually have no idea what they really want to know. It is really difficult to tell a person what something tastes like without a common frame of reference.
You are so right! Many years ago I was on a business trip to Vietnam. They were treating me well because I was deciding if we were going to include them in our bid to the customer.
The second night they took me out to a restaurant. I don’t read Vietnamese. I really enjoyed the food.
Two years later, I was watching Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre foods in Hanoi where I had been. He went to the same restaurant. But he got a translation “Best Snake House/” I emailed my friend at the partner and said what did we eat that night.
“King Cobra. It is better if you don’t know.”
I imagine that it was quite good. There is also a lot of meat on a king cobra.
At times, I’ve equated it with telling someone who has been blind from birth what a sunset looks like or describing a symphony rendition of a music piece to someone who has always been deaf.
Nice Analogy! I like that metaphor, it fits perfectly. Explaining the color red to a blind person.
Nice post to think about… I sometimes ask a question not for info but just to feel connected with another person…
They say a fool can ask more questions than any clever man can answer… 😉
There is a lot of truth in that saying, too.