Vox

Leitura de 15 min

Improving Through Bad Ideas and Silly Questions

Summary

The episode begins by examining the common workplace phrase ‘there are no stupid questions or bad ideas,’ and why, despite hearing it, people’s social instincts often prevent them from sharing. The host, Jonathan Cottrell, explains that in established teams, individuals have built a picture of their own competency and fear damaging that perception by asking questions that might reveal gaps in knowledge or by proposing ideas outside the mainstream. This fear of being seen as incompetent or inconsistent is a powerful, innate survival mechanism.

Cottrell then challenges this suppression by revealing a key insight: if every person in a meeting has a ‘stupid’ question they’re unwilling to ask, it’s almost certain that the answer to your question will benefit someone else. He argues that breaking the ice with your own question can open the door for others to ask theirs, creating a culture where this kind of sharing is invited regularly, not just in special brainstorming sessions. This requires intentional effort, especially from leaders.

The discussion shifts to the inherent value of ‘bad’ ideas and ‘silly’ questions. Cottrell points out that we often judge questions and ideas based on external signals like authority or social hierarchy, not their intrinsic merit. He posits that these imperfect contributions are important because they provoke different thought patterns and uncover areas of thought that would otherwise remain dormant. A bad idea can be the seed for the best idea, and a silly question can illuminate the important one.

Finally, the host emphasizes that entertaining bad ideas and silly questions is a cheap, low-risk way to break the mold of presuppositions and introduce new ‘raw materials’ for a discussion. Even if only one good idea emerges from five bad ones, the allowance is worth it. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to share the podcast and a reminder that leaders must participate in this vulnerability by sharing their own confusing thoughts and questions to model and encourage this behavior in their teams.

Recommendations

Tools

  • Educative — Sponsored tool for developer learning. It offers text-based courses (as opposed to video) with pre-configured developer environments for practicing as you learn. Covers topics like machine learning, Kubernetes, AWS, and system architecture.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to the paradox of ‘no bad ideas’ — Jonathan introduces the common meeting phrase ‘there are no stupid questions, there are no bad ideas’ and acknowledges that people rarely believe it. He states the episode’s goal: to explore why we present this open table while our social instincts prevent us from sharing, and why we should share our ‘bad’ ideas and ‘dumb’ questions anyway.
  • 00:01:30 — The social fear in established teams — The host explains that in most meetings, the group is not new; people have established working relationships and pictures of each other’s competency. He asks listeners to imagine the fear of damaging that picture by asking a question others think you should already know. This leads people to suppress questions to avoid revealing knowledge gaps.
  • 00:03:39 — The collective benefit of asking suppressed questions — Cottrell presents a counter-argument: if everyone has a question they’re unwilling to ask, your question’s answer will likely benefit someone else. He suggests that if a team culture invites this sharing regularly, one person breaking the ice can open the door for others, creating a virtuous cycle of clarification and learning.
  • 00:04:42 — Root causes: fear and the desire for consistency — The host identifies the underlying reasons for not sharing: fear of being seen as incompetent, too opinionated, or of reinforcing a negative stereotype (e.g., ‘the one who always asks questions’). He connects this to a core human motivation to avoid introducing inconsistency in how others perceive us, which feels threatening.
  • 00:06:17 — The leader’s role in encouraging vulnerability — Cottrell addresses leaders and aspiring team leads, stating it’s necessary for them to constantly encourage this kind of open conversation. Crucially, the leader must participate by being vulnerable—sharing their own confusing thoughts and questions that might make them look ‘dumb’—to model the desired behavior.
  • 00:08:26 — The instrumental value of bad ideas and silly questions — After a sponsor break, the host asks why bad ideas and silly questions are needed. He argues that we often judge questions based on signals of authority or social hierarchy, not content. Silly questions and bad ideas are valuable because they provoke different thought patterns and uncover dormant areas of discussion.
  • 00:10:55 — Bad ideas as seeds for the best ideas — Cottrell elaborates that a bad idea may contain the ‘raw ingredients’ or fundamental sub-ideas that can evolve into the best idea. Similarly, a silly question can be the catalyst that turns on the light bulb for the important question. These contributions break the mold of our presuppositions and introduce new raw materials.
  • 00:11:55 — The low cost and high potential reward — The host concludes the core argument by stating that entertaining bad ideas and silly questions is cheap and easy. The potential payoff is high: if even one good idea comes from five bad ones, it was worth allowing them. This practice is a low-risk way to foster innovation and deeper thinking.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2020-04-08T09:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:13:28

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] we’ve all heard the phrases there are no stupid questions there are no bad ideas

[00:00:12] these are the kinds of phrases that we hear when we’re kicking off a meeting

[00:00:17] and most of the time people don’t buy them our instincts kick in and we hold back

[00:00:26] we hold back a question that we think is going to make us look stupid or we hold back an idea

[00:00:32] that is out of the mainstream of ideas that are being presented in today’s episode we’re going

[00:00:40] to talk a little bit about why we do this why we present the false idea that the table is open

[00:00:47] to any input at all when in reality on the flip side our social instincts and

[00:00:54] awareness kick in

[00:00:56] and prevent us from sharing those ideas but then we’re going to talk a little bit about why

[00:01:01] it’s true that there is no bad idea or perhaps more accurately why you should share your

[00:01:11] bad ideas and your dumb questions my name is jonathan guttrell you’re listening to developer

[00:01:19] t my goal on this show is to help driven developers like you find clarity perspective and purpose

[00:01:24] in their careers

[00:01:26] most of the time in the meetings that we’re talking about

[00:01:30] there is one person who is bringing this kind of uh idealism to the table

[00:01:38] idealism in the in the sense that they’re inviting anybody to provide any kind of input that they

[00:01:46] want to provide but very rarely are these groups new these groups have probably been working

[00:01:54] together if you found any of these groups new you’re going to find that they’re not going to

[00:01:56] be working together if you find yourself in this situation it’s probably a group of people

[00:01:59] that you have previous context with these are not new people these are people who you have

[00:02:05] established a pattern a working relationship with and so in this kind of environment it is

[00:02:13] nearly impossible to turn on the open ideas switch and the reason for this is that with an established

[00:02:22] context like this you’ve already built

[00:02:26] a picture of who you are to your co-workers and they have done the same with you and i want you to

[00:02:35] put yourself in this situation try to imagine sitting in front of those co-workers and their

[00:02:42] picture of let’s say your competency as a developer starts to fall apart because you

[00:02:50] ask questions that they think you should already know the answers to

[00:02:56] now this is a scary concept this is a scary place to be and it seems a very realistic scenario

[00:03:05] it seems that there is some question that pops up in your mind that you’re likely to suppress

[00:03:13] and decide that you’re going to try to answer it on your own later and your reasoning for this

[00:03:21] is probably something along the lines of well that’s just a small question that you’re going to

[00:03:26] a gap in my knowledge that other people don’t have and so i have the responsibility

[00:03:32] to fill that gap so i can catch up with everyone else and here’s the amazing reality

[00:03:39] that we’ve just uncovered if every person in that meeting has a stupid question that they are

[00:03:48] unwilling to ask it is almost certain that the question that you have

[00:03:56] will benefit someone else the answer to that question will benefit someone else

[00:04:01] additionally if you were to build a team where this kind of pattern is acceptable where sharing

[00:04:09] this information is invited on a regular basis not just in these special brainstorming meetings but

[00:04:16] on a regular basis then it’s very likely that you breaking the ice with your question

[00:04:24] will open the door to a new question and you’re going to be able to answer that question and

[00:04:26] open the door to other people asking their silly questions there are a lot of reasons

[00:04:33] why we would choose not to share information ideas questions in these social or or you know

[00:04:42] professional social situations most often the reasons are connected to an underlying fear

[00:04:51] you don’t want to be seen as incompetent

[00:04:56] perhaps you don’t want to be seen as too opinionated maybe you have developed a

[00:05:03] kind of personality on the team of the one who always asks the questions and you decide one day

[00:05:10] that you’re not going to be that person anymore that you want to avoid that negative stereotype

[00:05:17] and so even though you have a valid question it may not even be a dumb question you’ve chosen not

[00:05:24] to share it

[00:05:26] this is a hard problem to solve there’s no one quick trick that will solve this issue because

[00:05:32] we have a lot of kind of built-in motivations that are really core to our survival mechanisms

[00:05:39] as humans that help us avoid situations where we are introducing inconsistency

[00:05:47] if we introduce a new picture of ourselves if suddenly we are the person with a lot of opinions

[00:05:56] previously we were easygoing well that’s inconsistent if we suddenly share that we

[00:06:03] don’t agree with our own previous views or our own previous assertions then that is inconsistent

[00:06:10] and so it’s necessary and important if you’re a leader that’s listening to this podcast or

[00:06:17] if you are you know wanting to become a team lead for example that you are constantly encouraging

[00:06:24] this kind of conversation and that’s why we’re so important to share this information with our

[00:06:26] community and that’s why we’re so important to share this information with our community

[00:06:26] of questioning this kind of sharing of ideas it’s also important that the person who’s doing that

[00:06:34] leading is participating in sharing of those ideas in other words it is an advantage for a

[00:06:44] leader to be vulnerable and share the things that are confusing to them share the things that

[00:06:51] might make them look dumb we’re going to take a quick sponsor break and then we’re

[00:06:56] going to come back and talk about why these questions the silly questions or the bad ideas

[00:07:02] why they are instrumental to developing good ideas together today’s episode is sponsored by

[00:07:12] educative for developers the learning never stops there are always new languages frameworks and

[00:07:19] technologies and educative.io is here to help you with that educative helps you learn faster and

[00:07:25] more efficiently and more efficiently and more efficiently and more efficiently and more efficiently

[00:07:26] because instead of using video based courses which require you to scrub back and forth

[00:07:31] and you see a very little code that you can copy for example their courses are all text based so you

[00:07:39] can skim and double back easily almost like a book each course also contains pre-configured

[00:07:45] developer environments so you can practice as you learn courses cover all kinds of in-demand topics

[00:07:52] like machine learning kubernetes aws

[00:07:55] system

[00:07:56] architecture and much more. And they just launched their subscriptions at nearly 50% off. So this is

[00:08:02] a good time to check it out. But you can get an additional 10% off of everything by visiting

[00:08:07] educative.io slash developer T. That’s educative.io slash developer T. Thanks again to Educative for

[00:08:16] sponsoring today’s episode of developer T. Why are bad ideas important? And why are silly questions

[00:08:26] needed? It seems like we should all be focused. Like we should all be asking thoughtful and smart

[00:08:37] questions. We should be proposing innovative ideas. These are all the buzzwords that you hear. But

[00:08:44] where do these labels come from? And how would you know if an idea or a question fit into those

[00:08:54] categories?

[00:08:56] The reality is that most of the time, the way we define what is a good question is based on other

[00:09:03] signals that tell us that it’s a good question. Signals of authority or thoughtfulness. Signals of

[00:09:12] intelligence or even social hierarchy and being the leader in that hierarchy. We tend to take

[00:09:20] these signals and judge the questions that are being asked or the ideas that are being presented

[00:09:26] based on those signals and based on our previous experiences. And so if something seems to flow

[00:09:32] well with the given conversation, then we might judge that positively. But if someone interrupts

[00:09:40] that flow, if the question seems out of left field, or if we don’t necessarily respect that person or

[00:09:47] think that they’re smart going into the meeting, we’re likely to cast our judgment and cast those

[00:09:53] labels on those questions as they’re coming in.

[00:09:56] There’s no one particular arbiter of the questions that are coming through. And it’s important to

[00:10:03] recognize that dumb questions or silly questions, bad ideas, all provoke thought. And what’s

[00:10:11] interesting about silly questions and bad ideas is that they tend to uncover areas of thought

[00:10:19] that otherwise would have been left dormant. In other words, when we ask a silly question,

[00:10:25] because it is coming out of left field, because it is so different, perhaps, than the rest of the

[00:10:33] questions that are being asked, it invokes a different thought pattern. And we have to be

[00:10:39] general here because it’s hard to be specific. There’s no specific thought pattern that a silly

[00:10:45] question might provoke. But by introducing a new thought into the discussion, it’s possible that we

[00:10:53] can take the raw ingredients.

[00:10:55] The fundamental ideas or kind of sub ideas, the structures that are being proposed in those ideas

[00:11:05] and evolve from them. The bad idea may be the seed for the best idea. And the silly question

[00:11:16] may be the thing that turns the light bulb on for the important question. So much about what

[00:11:25] we assume going into a meeting shapes that meeting. And by allowing these flexible and

[00:11:34] unexpected questions to happen, or unexpected inputs to happen in these discussions,

[00:11:40] we could break the mold of our presuppositions. We break the mold and we introduce new raw

[00:11:49] materials to work with. Entertaining those bad ideas and those silly questions,

[00:11:55] is cheap. It’s very easy to entertain them. It’s very easy to allow them. And if even only one

[00:12:04] good idea comes from five bad ideas, then it was worth the allowance.

[00:12:12] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer Tea. Thank you again to

[00:12:17] today’s sponsor, Educative. Head over to educative.io slash developer tea to get started today with

[00:12:24] that 10% off.

[00:12:25] This show only exists because you as a listener are there listening. And we need more listeners

[00:12:34] like you to continue the show. So I’d like to ask you to share this podcast with someone that you

[00:12:41] think would appreciate it. It doesn’t have to be a developer. Obviously, we don’t talk about only

[00:12:47] code on this show. Take a moment and think about someone who would benefit from this particular

[00:12:54] episode.

[00:12:55] And then send it to them. This is the most important thing you can do to help developer

[00:13:01] tea. The second most important thing you can do is leave us a review in iTunes. This helps other

[00:13:08] people like you decide to listen to developer tea. Thank you so much for listening. Today’s

[00:13:15] episode was produced by Sarah Jackson. My name is Jonathan Cottrell. And until next time, enjoy your

[00:13:21] tea.

[00:13:25] I’m Jonathan Cottrell. And I’ll see you in the next episode of Educative.

Visão de gráfico