Asking the Right Questions is More Important than Answering the Wrong Questions

Having spent more than half of my life studying the flight of humanity I would sum up the insights of most everything I have learned in following statement:  it is far more important to figure out what the right questions to ask are vs trying to figure out the answers to the wrong questions.

Some examples, at both the personal and public policy level:

Limited/Misplaced Questions       

How can I live a happy life?       

Why vote?

What are the proximate causes of disease?    

What causes conflict and war in the world?   

How can we maximize GDP?          

What duties/rules should I follow?   

What are the most important moral values?    

What should I do?                             

Better Questions

How can I live a life of meaning and purpose?

Why do anything?

What causes health?

What causes compromise and peace?

How can we flourish as a society?

What kind of person should I be?

What constitutes a reasonable balance among competing moral claims?   

What should I believe?  

Cheers, 

Colin