Definitely true. Also, once kids figure out they can frustrate adults, an element of “game playing” enters the picture and they do it on purpose. For adults, though, I see “Why?” as the lazy question. It throws all the effort of actually formulating an answerable question on whoever tries to answer it. Young children don’t know enough to be more precise, so “Why?” is a general-purpose question simply asking for more information.
For adults, though, I see “Why?” as the lazy question. It throws all the effort of actually formulating an answerable question on whoever tries to answer it.
I think this touches on something huge. Asking why, and seeking to answer it yourself, is not childish or annoying or looked down upon—it’s science! Asking why, and expecting someone else to figure out the particular question and find an answer for you is absolutely childish. It may in fact be appropriate for a child, but it does hit a point where the work being demanded is far more than is appropriate to the interaction, and difficulty in dealing with this leads to frustration; it is not easy to explain to a child why asking “why?” and expecting the adult to provide a response in the context of a short interaction was reasonable the past 4 times and now is unreasonable.
Note that while I would say, “answer this for me” is generally childish, “come answer this with me” is more often not—I don’t mean to exclude involvement by others. In all cases, though, it depends somewhat on circumstance.
Agreed that asking yourself why isn’t childish, nor as in my earlier post is it “lazy” to ask it of yourself, but I don’t think it is particularly useful either. “Why?” is too big a question to answer. You need to break it down into answerable bites, as science does as a practical matter in requiring testable hypotheses.
Definitely true. Also, once kids figure out they can frustrate adults, an element of “game playing” enters the picture and they do it on purpose. For adults, though, I see “Why?” as the lazy question. It throws all the effort of actually formulating an answerable question on whoever tries to answer it. Young children don’t know enough to be more precise, so “Why?” is a general-purpose question simply asking for more information.
I think this touches on something huge. Asking why, and seeking to answer it yourself, is not childish or annoying or looked down upon—it’s science! Asking why, and expecting someone else to figure out the particular question and find an answer for you is absolutely childish. It may in fact be appropriate for a child, but it does hit a point where the work being demanded is far more than is appropriate to the interaction, and difficulty in dealing with this leads to frustration; it is not easy to explain to a child why asking “why?” and expecting the adult to provide a response in the context of a short interaction was reasonable the past 4 times and now is unreasonable.
Note that while I would say, “answer this for me” is generally childish, “come answer this with me” is more often not—I don’t mean to exclude involvement by others. In all cases, though, it depends somewhat on circumstance.
Agreed that asking yourself why isn’t childish, nor as in my earlier post is it “lazy” to ask it of yourself, but I don’t think it is particularly useful either. “Why?” is too big a question to answer. You need to break it down into answerable bites, as science does as a practical matter in requiring testable hypotheses.
Right. “Why?” is a starting point.