Drunken Curiosity & Unsettled Questions

Asking and answering; a foolproof way to developing your cleverness and wisdom.

How often does your brain have to stop and do this?

I think most of us experience these moments more often than we care to admit. Something in the news, an article we’ve read, a tweet that bubbles across our brain. The list goes on and on.

A combination of curiosity, self-positions and shear craziness have set our brains up to constantly be evaluating the information around us. Some deflect those questioning thoughts like a meteor skipping off the earth but I think most of us have many periods where something goes right through the atmosphere and pops that brain eyebrow.

Now not every nugget can be a direct strike. When the first thing I hear coming into my house is “If you let me be a horse tonight, I will be a human tomorrow…”, I quickly deduce the likelihood that my youngest daughter has found a way to transmute her form is rather unlikely. I can return to my normal arrival duties safe in the knowledge that her goal to be a horse is not going to cause an ancillary outcome of my having an asthma attack due to a horse dander allergy.

Those real eyebrow moments though are opportunities for us to ask questions, to sate the curiosity that wells up. Asking and answering questions is one of the purest ways we have to quench that desire for knowledge. The ability and joy we get from asking a little bit more, digging a little bit deeper. How often do you go down the internet/youtube/social media rabbit hole…?

I decided to start this newsletter because I love asking and answering questions; falling down the rabbit hole. Building a community of like minded people who revel in the details.

With questions though come answers that can fit a narrative we want to hear and sometimes don’t. The answers that challenge our understanding, that make us think outside of our comfort zone are the ones that help us to grow the most.

I know my answers a lot of the time can be narrative challenged. Thus the newsletter title…

Am I or Are The Others Crazy

Questions are how I have pivoted from engineering to IT to data to engineering and developed passions for photography, data science, history, politics and more. Each week the goal is to deep dive into a fun or popular or controversial narrative and explore it with questions. Curate content from many sources to explore and maybe even answer some of the relevant questions of the day.

I think the world has changed a lot here in 2020 and many of us are looking for new ways to engage a community, explore the world, and learn about interesting topics (like the Oxford comma).

The potential structure…

• Question of the Week - A question or topic that needs some good ole fashion deep dive.

• Baby Quips - Tiny, little, ity bitty questions or thoughts that need room to breath.

• Other Fun Stuff - Stuff that is not the stuff above but is also fun.

In the end, we should end up with something that helps answering if I, you, or “The Others” are crazy.

"Asking, 'Why?' is the key to everything. Question always. Answer the why.” - Vickie Gould

Jason Wilcox

T: @JWilcoxData
IG: jasonwilcoxphotography
yourdatastory.io

Sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue.

In the meantime, tell your friends!