9 Quotes by James E. Ryan

Because you were my first friend here. You listened to me.

Couldn’t we at least talk it through, and talk about what it would mean for our family?

Too often we fail to pause for clarification, thinking that we understand something before we do. In doing so, we miss the opportunity to grasp the full significance of an idea, an assertion, or an event. Asking “Wait, what?” is a good way to capture, rather than miss, those opportunities.

The trick is to help others without believing yourself to be, or acting like you are, their savior.

And there is no greater gift to bestow on children than the gift of curiosity. Effective leaders, even great ones, accept that they don’t have all the answers. But they know how to ask the right questions – questions that force others and themselves to move past old and tired answers, questions that open up possibilities that, before the question, went unseen.

Asking “Wait, what?” is also a good way to avoid jumping to conclusions or making snap judgments. Too often we decide very early whether we agree or disagree with someone or with an idea, without making an effort to truly understand the person or the point. Our.

The only truly bad questions are not really questions at all. They are statements disguised as questions that are meant to be demeaning or designed to trip you up.

When like-minded individuals get together, online or in real life, they tend to reinforce each other’s views. They not only increase the strength of each other’s convictions, but they often lead each other, intentionally or not, to take even more extreme positions.

Asking good questions is hard because it requires you to see past the easy answers and to focus instead on the difficult, the tricky, the mysterious, the awkward, and sometimes the painful.