Q
Description
'Q is one of those rare books that hands you back a capability you didn't realise you'd lost' DANIEL H. PINK
Our lives are shaped by questions: they are how we connect, persuade and flourish. But we live in a world that wants answers.
Questions are engines of learning, catalysts for connection, and drivers of change. They direct our attention and make us feel closer to loved ones and strangers alike. In fact, we are the only species that truly asks questions of one another.
But school trains us to answer, not ask. Workplaces reinforce that, and technology feeds us solutions before we've described the problem. The result is that we live in an answer-rich, question-poor world. Yet, from doctors' surgeries to courtrooms to dating, the ability to ask questions determines our experiences. In a world obsessed by answers, asking better questions is powerful.
Q takes us on a transformative journey into the art and science of questioning and will shift your perspective on the world. In a captivating narrative from the death of Socrates to the age of AI, Lani Watson draws on research in psychology, philosophy and neuroscience to show how questions play a vital role in our individual lives and in our shared human story.
Q will make you think about the questions you ask and the ones you don't. It is a life-enhancing invitation to harness the hidden power of our most underappreciated human skill.
'Excellent. Q will alter how you interact with the world' DAVID EDMONDS
'An exhilarating and wise book. This is what philosophy should be - fizzing, sparkling and catalytic' CHARLES FOSTER
'By giving us back a simple tool we've had all along, Q empowers us all. This is a book that could change lives' INDIA RAKUSEN
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Person
Dr Lani Watson is fascinated by questions. She is a philosopher and Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and formerly Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.
She has spent nearly two decades studying the art and science of questioning. She has worked in schools and courtrooms, hospitals and press rooms, and in the heart of Silicon Valley. Across all her research, she has drawn one conclusion: questions are powerful. And if we learn to use them, we can harness their power for good.