If you think you know what the answer is, you haven't asked a big enough question.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Stone suggests that confident certainty about answers indicates you are not asking questions broad enough to reveal the truth.
- In plain terms
- If you are sure you know the answer, you did not ask a big enough question.
- What can you take from it?
- True inquiry requires questioning big assumptions.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When is certainty useful?
- How do you know if a question is big enough?
Another view
Sometimes practical tasks require certainty rather than broad questioning.
More from I. F. Stone
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