The Why Game

Sarosh Farhan
Sep 1, 2018 · 3 min read
Artwork by Sarosh Farhan

If you know any annoying small kid, or if you were once an annoying small kid yourself (I was!), you will be familiar with the “Why Game”. If you are not, here’s how it works. Annoying small kid asks you a question, you answer, then he/she asks “Why?”. Every time you answer he/she asks “Why?” again and again and again until you run out of answers.

The point of this is to make you realize that today, in this online era with plethora of gizmos at our disposal, we have somewhere lost the annoying kid who asks why? Either we have lost the curiosity, or we think it is not cool anymore to be a curious child/adult.

To flex the muscles of your grey matter, let us see how to start

Thinking deeply about simple things.

This is a simple technique, you take a simple idea and make it more complex and harder by digging deep into it.

The toughest problems in life are not when things get complicated but it’s the other way around, it’s when things get simpler.

Sphere and Stairs by Sandor

Take for example, a circle, the simplest shape of all in one dimension, in fact if you dig deeper and add more dimensions, it will still be the simplest of all shapes but if you study its properties you will be amazed by the complexity of it even in one dimension. Have you ever wondered why such a simple shape has such complex properties?

So, to think deeply about simple things one ought to ask two questions:

  1. Why?
  2. What If…

Why?

Why is this the case?

Why does it happen this way and not any other way?

Why this? Why that?

and then try to find the answer to it and then again ask “Why?” and again and again till you get to a point of no return or to a point where rules and laws don’t apply.

Which now forms the basis of second question.

What if…

People will tell you that this is how things work in life and that, this is the unbreakable law. Now is the perfect time to let go of your inner annoying kid and ask, “What if…” and see the possibilities and answers which unravels along the way.

To make my point, let me take an example from Mathematics (because I am an engineer and most of us love Mathematics).

Why is there always a positive number inside a square root symbol?

Simple and easy answer: There is no number which will give you back a negative number when you square it.

Now, What if we introduce a negative number inside the square root?

We get a complex number!!!

You see, somewhere someone let go their inner annoying kid and asked “What if…” for the above question and shook the very foundation of mathematics and created possibilities for quantum mechanics, quantum physics and other related fields of study.

It is through these two questions one can think deeply about simple things. These two questions will guide one to think deeply in every situation (works for me!) be it Love, Life, Mathematics, Design, Science and even Sports and Athletics too.

So, for all the thinkers, doers and crazy people out there, here’s a rhetorical question for you.

What if… you started asking Why???

Sarosh Farhan

Written by

Content Consumer | UX Designer at Tata Consultancy Services | Machine Learning Enthusiast | To build something together mail me at saroshfarhan6495@gmail.com

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