Blog of an Interactive Storyteller

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Useful Question in a Well Met Context

A good question.

"if you could get paid good money to do literally anything, what would you do?"

-- from Twitter user @ceeoreo_

A good question will open up new paths, clarify ideas in a way that gets us to set aside things that blocked us moments before hearing the question.

That framing of "good question" to me is something that helps me learn more in this situation in a useful caring way. So part of what works about questions is the question but also the situation I'm in. The situation other folks are in too if I'm the one asking. It's the context we find ourselves and the question. Context makes a difference if the question will be able to be of use to anyone involved.

Context that of a question.

Context for questions is made of what affects people:

  • Who is asking the question.
  • Where are you emotionally and physically.
  • What were you doing when asked.
  • Are you ready enough to hear the question so that it becomes a useful tool for you?
  • Is this a psychologically safe situation where you have comfort and trust?

The context of how you feel and where you are has a lot to do with a question being a good fit. Studying and practicing design research, coaching, and creative facilitation: questions are a tool important to each discipline. Because I care about questions, when I notice a question affect me in a useful way often I'll save it, book mark it, write it down.

A good question that I'm open to consider.

This question appeared in my Twitter feed because of semi-opaque platform behavior reasons. A whole separate topic how few platforms give us an unfiltered timeline anymore. However it appeared in my feed I do like the question: "If you could get paid good money to do literally anything, what would you do?".

I like how it frames looking at future options. This kind of question is useful to get us to think about abundance in a specific way that hopefully doesn't overwhelm. Somewhere in your experiences, memories, preferences, mix of feelings you probably have an interesting answer to that question.

To answer that question, I'd keep learning, applying, teaching a combination of practices for user experience, game design and development, and visual storytelling. More funds assists with options to fund projects, causes, collaborations and all the rest.