Asking the dumb questions

Beginners mind

When you come into a new situation, it’s very natural to start out by being quiet and observing. Mostly, this is a good thing to do - you don’t know what you don’t know, so looking and listening is a good early strategy. You’ll see things that don’t make sense, but after a bit of time, begin to be clearer, as you understand the whole picture. This is true for new teams, new domains of expertise, and new cities alike.

But sometimes, you’ll see something that doesn’t make sense and you can’t get to make sense. It’s tempting to just keep quiet, but in fact, you have a superpower here: you can ask the “dumb” question!

There’s actually a word for this in Japanese martial arts: “beginner’s mind”. It’s often the case that beginners are unexpectedly better at some aspects of a complex skill than they “should” be, and this is because they don’t have all the preconceived ideas that the experts do - sometimes they can really find more natural ways to do things. In fact, this is something that is actively cultivated as you gain experience - the goal is to simultaneously be a skilled expert but also be constantly seeing things through “fresh” eyes.

If you’re new, no one expects you to know everything, so you can get away with asking something that seems “dumb” but actually isn’t. And in fact, you’d be surprised how often other members of the team have had the same question but are less able to ask it, or to challenge something that seems settled. It’s a very common pattern in teams - sometimes things “just happen” and everyone assumes that everyone else knows why.

Often the new people can expose this in a healthy way. And if someone on your team asks something and you find yourself answering some variant of “just because”, it’s a good indication that there’s something not right that deserves to be re-examined.

Trying to cultivate beginner’s mind is a very valuable practice. Giving any team member, but especially new ones, space to ask awkward questions is one of the most effective ways to keep your team nimble and growing. Celebrate those dumb questions! They’re incredibly valuable.