I have a problem—and if I’m not mistaken, you do too. It’s fear. Not just any fear, though: the fear of asking stupid questions. I’ve learned over the years how getting over this fear has helped me to reach creative solutions and find meaningful answers. But I took the scenic route on the way, and I’m going to tell you how I eventually discovered that, among all the different kinds of questions, five in particular have been especially helpful, and the one thing they all have in common that makes them most effective. Looking back, I realize that feeling like a perpetual outsider was a big part of my childhood. First of all, I was generally just wired a little

Recently, I had the chance to visit my first school, over 40 years since the last time I stepped foot in the building, and it was a pretty bizarre experience, but I walked away with a memory that taught me a crucial lesson. Built over 100 years ago, the building had been condemned as a fire hazard (asbestos was likely a factor too) and forced the students to move to a variety of newer schools in the area, and only a handful of the kids went to the same one I did. We moved away from the town a few years later, and as the years have gone by, visits to the town became more seldom, especially after my grandparents