An Anti-Handbook for receiving instant answers without becoming an idiot. By Martin Imagine that the government creates an Emergency Question Department. Before citizens may ask anything, they must prove that they have already thought about it for at least thirty seconds. I believe this could improve society. Unfortunately, the longer queues would become the first…
I have always believed there is a line between being interested in another person and entering a part of their life that does not belong to you. Then I started dancing, met new people and discovered that sometimes curiosity opens a door rather than crosses a boundary. By Ismar When I was a child, my…
Why is the sky blue? What kind of car is that? Why do they look the same? Why can’t we live next to the school? Why do I have to do homework every day? What’s for dinner? Where are my shoes? The needle keeps scratching the same sentence. Only the needle isn’t scratching a vinyl…
Before sitting down with Bruce, I watched three of his recent AI presentations. Bruce had asked AI to write rubbish, reconsider what it means to be good and explore how human beings might survive the AI age. I came to our conversation with impressions from those three experiments. The questions did not remain separate for…
One question opened my kitchen. Twenty years later, my wife’s sport opened a world I never expected to love. By Ralf The First Question The first important question was not very romantic. “Are you the former husband of S—the man who can cook so well?” That was what my wife asked me when we first…
At 65, I am not sure that I will become a good dancer. But after spending a great deal of time alone, ballroom dancing has brought new people, movement and fun into my life. By Ismar My sixty-fifth birthday contained two surprises. At lunchtime, I went to a restaurant with my mother, my aunt and…
After years of asking what Brida is, who it is for and whether anybody might eventually pay for it, the Mayor has finally received a definitive answer. An obituary for a man who asked one question too many. The Mayor died today after a long and largely unsuccessful struggle with curiosity. The immediate cause of…
A man walks onto the stage of America’s Got Talent. He does not dance, sing or explain himself. He simply stands there, completely expressionless, while Tequila begins to play. Then, at exactly the right moment, he says one word: “Tequila.” That is almost the entire performance, and yet the audience cannot look away. They are…
I opened a glowing portal behind the washing machine and took the Mayor into a world of revolutions, holy socks, suspicious ducks and laundry-basket racing. Somewhere along the way, I remembered how good it feels to simply have fun. “I thought about the theme of the month,” I announced. “Curiosity.” The Mayor immediately prepared himself…
Sometimes rest isn’t about doing nothing. Sometimes it’s baking bread before work, laughing at a child’s unexpected song, and looking forward to a camping weekend with a slightly questionable slushy in your hand. For a long time, I thought rest meant stopping. Lying on the sofa. Sleeping longer. Doing absolutely nothing. But if I’m honest,…
