Questions are a disruptive technology. A thread. 1/

We see the most recent wave of disruptive technologies. E-commerce. Smart phones. Ride-sharing. Blockchain. We are often blind to the disruptive technologies and techniques that have been with us for a long, long time, but are still disruptive and disrupting. /2
Ancient but still disruptive tech: music, migration, out-marriage, ink, questions. /3
Questions change lives. They bring people together, tear them apart. They open doors. And minds. They are the seed of adventure. They acknowledge the chaos inside and around us. They are a transfer of power, trusting that the power will come back in time, improved. /4
What is a question? We use them so frequently, so thoughtlessly. It is easy to overlook their strangeness, and the nature of their power. /5
What is a question? (I am not going to share a dictionary definition here.) /6
A question is a marker of mystery, a pointer to the potentially unknown. It is a hand-off from one voice to another. For one, it is a shift from speaking to listening; for another, from listening to speaking. /7
A question is one of the smallest transfers of power that we can manage, or mismanage. /8
When you ask me a question - sincerely - you surrender some control of the conversation, for the time being. Most of us learn at an early age that this is a necessary thing, a good thing, a beautiful thing. That we are enriched by the viewpoints of others. /9
There are the macro ways we that help us live well together with others. Liberal democracy. Freedom of association. Of exchange. Of conscience. Ethically, religiously, or spiritually sourced norms around tolerating, respecting and even loving others. These are grand things. /10
Those are the big harmonizers, bringing our lives into harmony with one another. At the scale of hundreds, thousands, millions. But the little harmonizers matter too. For the scale of ones and twos. Tens and twenties. /11
So what are *you* like in conversation? /12
Too many "conversations" are dueling monologues. Two or more people spouting off in one another's vicinity, grandstanding in close quarters. /13
Questions weave together viewpoints, transforming what would otherwise be two (or more) monologues into a single dialogue. They create opportunities to be surprised, to influence and be influenced, to come into harmony, to co-evolve. /14
You can be "for" the big harmonizers, but lousy at the little harmonizers. That's been me in years past and it's still me at times, so I'll put that in the first person. I can be "for" the big harmonizers, and lousy at the little harmonizers. /15
It's easier to be "for" good things in the abstract, and harder to be a practitioner of good things in the concrete. Easy to love humanity, but hate humans. Easy to have the right yard sign, but harder to be kind. /16
So let's get concrete. Where and how can you use questions more skillfully? /17
#1. You can use questions to develop a better relationship with yourself. A few questions for that. /18
- What's my pattern with this?
- What's the real challenge for me here?
- What progress can I savor or appreciate?
- What does this (hard situation, dark thought or difficult emotion) have to teach me?
- What would a wise, kind elder recommend I do?
- What's my next step?/19
#2. You can use questions to develop a better relationship with family and friends. A questions for that. /20
- What's on your mind, really?
- What do *you* think?
- Where did you learn that skill?
- What's working in your life right now?
- What keeps you up at night these days?
- How can I help? /21
#3. You can use questions to be more effective in your work. /22
For work, use all of the above, plus:
- What assumptions can we relax?
- What would have to be true for this to be the best choice?
- What voice or alternative should we add to the mix?
- If we had to act now, what would we do?
- How can we test this quickly and cheaply? /23
These questions are not error-proof. If you ask them with the wrong intent or the wrong tone, they may not open things up for you. If you ask them with the right intent and tone, but get distracted and fail to listen, that's on you. /24
In the right hands, they have immense power. /25
A shout-out to my friend, Michael Strong (@flowidealism), whose TED talk on Socratic practice as a disruptive technology inspired many of these reflections. I am going to do another thread on what I've learned about Socratic practice, specifically. /26
A shout-out to Mike Rother (@realmikerother), whose book Toyota Kata has inspired and guided the way I use questions to guide problem-solving in business. /27
If you want to get a daily question from me, sign up at https://t.co/hdHbbc6Dqw /28

More from Tech

On Wednesday, The New York Times published a blockbuster report on the failures of Facebook’s management team during the past three years. It's.... not flattering, to say the least. Here are six follow-up questions that merit more investigation. 1/

1) During the past year, most of the anger at Facebook has been directed at Mark Zuckerberg. The question now is whether Sheryl Sandberg, the executive charged with solving Facebook’s hardest problems, has caused a few too many of her own. 2/
https://t.co/DTsc3g0hQf


2) One of the juiciest sentences in @nytimes’ piece involves a research group called Definers Public Affairs, which Facebook hired to look into the funding of the company’s opposition. What other tech company was paying Definers to smear Apple? 3/ https://t.co/DTsc3g0hQf


3) The leadership of the Democratic Party has, generally, supported Facebook over the years. But as public opinion turns against the company, prominent Democrats have started to turn, too. What will that relationship look like now? 4/

4) According to the @nytimes, Facebook worked to paint its critics as anti-Semitic, while simultaneously working to spread the idea that George Soros was supporting its critics—a classic tactic of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. What exactly were they trying to do there? 5/
There has been a lot of discussion about negative emissions technologies (NETs) lately. While we need to be skeptical of assumed planetary-scale engineering and wary of moral hazard, we also need much greater RD&D funding to keep our options open. A quick thread: 1/10

Energy system models love NETs, particularly for very rapid mitigation scenarios like 1.5C (where the alternative is zero global emissions by 2040)! More problematically, they also like tons of NETs in 2C scenarios where NETs are less essential.
https://t.co/M3ACyD4cv7 2/10


In model world the math is simple: very rapid mitigation is expensive today, particularly once you get outside the power sector, and technological advancement may make later NETs cheaper than near-term mitigation after a point. 3/10

This is, of course, problematic if the aim is to ensure that particular targets (such as well-below 2C) are met; betting that a "backstop" technology that does not exist today at any meaningful scale will save the day is a hell of a moral hazard. 4/10

Many models go completely overboard with CCS, seeing a future resurgence of coal and a large part of global primary energy occurring with carbon capture. For example, here is what the MESSAGE SSP2-1.9 scenario shows: 5/10

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**Thread on Bravery of Sikhs**
(I am forced to do this due to continuous hounding of Sikh Extremists since yesterday)

Rani Jindan Kaur, wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh had illegitimate relations with Lal Singh (PM of Ranjit Singh). Along with Lal Singh, she attacked Jammu, burnt - https://t.co/EfjAq59AyI


Hindu villages of Jasrota, caused rebellion in Jammu, attacked Kishtwar.

Ancestors of Raja Ranjit Singh, The Sansi Tribe used to give daughters as concubines to Jahangir.


The Ludhiana Political Agency (Later NW Fronties Prov) was formed by less than 4000 British soldiers who advanced from Delhi and reached Ludhiana, receiving submissions of all sikh chiefs along the way. The submission of the troops of Raja of Lahore (Ranjit Singh) at Ambala.

Dabistan a contemporary book on Sikh History tells us that Guru Hargobind broke Naina devi Idol Same source describes Guru Hargobind serving a eunuch
YarKhan. (ref was proudly shared by a sikh on twitter)
Gobind Singh followed Bahadur Shah to Deccan to fight for him.


In Zafarnama, Guru Gobind Singh states that the reason he was in conflict with the Hill Rajas was that while they were worshiping idols, while he was an idol-breaker.

And idiot Hindus place him along Maharana, Prithviraj and Shivaji as saviours of Dharma.