Answers and Questions

I was intending to write something in response to Prof's post on what one looks for in students pursuing research. Since I am a student pursuing research, my views in this post may provide another perspective: What is it that makes one associate oneself with research and a research lab?

I was looking for the right set of ideas to express my views, and I got them, quite inadvertently, in a book of short essays in Kannada called Ekanta Lokanta (ಏಕಾಂತ ಲೋಕಾಂತ, roughly, Solitude vs Worldliness) by the Kannada literary critic O L Nagabhushanaswamy (incidentally, he has a very good Kannada blog here). The book raises several important philosophical/social questions. As a matter of fact, it gave me new perspectives on many things that we discuss frequently in our lab and elsewhere. This post uses some ideas from a few essays in that book.
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Answers are important. However, we value answers so highly that we neglect the importance of questions. People who know the right answers are always respected - in school, at home, in society. Look around and think of those "who matter". A lot of them are full of right answers: politicians, religious figures, cultural leaders, language "protectors", celebrities, op-ed writers, media et al.. Successful, since they know all the answers. And most people are content with these ready-to-use-recipe of right answers. People who know the answers are sought after, paid heavily, celebrated. Do the people who know the right answers know the right questions? Are they the questions that you were looking for answers for? Are those people interested in questions, right or wrong, or are they just full of answers, in the first place? What about the people who know the right questions? What about the people who want to know the right questions rather than the right answers? Hmm... Well, there are not many people who are interested in the right questions. At least, it seems so.

In school, there was a large, but limited, number of questions. Every question had one and only one right answer. The teacher is expected to ask the "right" questions (meaning, the ones in that large but limited pool) and the student is supposed to tell the "right" answers (meaning, the ones that have been generally approved). Students are highly encouraged to know answers and rewarded accordingly. There is not much incentive for those who are interested in questions.

Not just schools. Even the family, the society and whatever else that we are a part of, want us to, at times force us to, find the right answers. Very quickly at that. Natuarally, we take to readily available solutions. They are one size fits all readymade answers, moreover. Example right answers could be: go to the US-make money-come back or get a job-marry-settle down or study well-get good marks-get good job-make good money-buy a house, an insurance policy, an electric razor-live happily. Perhaps these are perfectly right answers, but have we verified? Perhaps it is not necessarily possible to verify but have we at least tried? Have we at least asked the questions and explored a set of answers? Let me illustrate this point with a real conversation I was involved in.

A friend of mine was asking about this highly respected chap who has a lot of right questions but who is quite capable of having a lot of right answers... In short, the friend asked me - "Why is he here?" I asked him back - "What do you mean? Why not here?" He replied - "No.. but if he were in the US or say a bigger place..." I continued - "Does his geographic location make much difference? He is convinced that his job is to ask questions. He would still just keep on asking the same goddamned questions wherever he chose to be." He was not satisfied - "I understand. But if he were somewhere else, he would be more famous, or at least he would have made more money. I am not saying he should go behind money. But if it is possible that money comes behind you without you needing to shift goalposts, why deny it?" " What will he do with so much money? Perhaps he does not have any use for it?" He was not amused - "Ah.. you are showing off idealism..." "No. I am not. Seriously, tell me." "Well, come on.. you could have so much money that you can buy a beautiful island somewhere and live happily." I pleaded - "Exactly. But what if he doesn't want to buy an island? What if he is just happy with the unrest that his questions bring him? Then why should he make so much money? Just because there's a possibility of doing so?"

Money is just an example. It could be anything. Should we be content with the answers that we have found? Should we not be intrigued by the choices of questions and answers that there may be? Should we not have more people who want to find their own questions first and then the answers? Or may be even people who just go out behind the questions endlessly? What are the right questions, anyway? Are they the one they ask in the TV polls? Or the ones that are asked in career advice forums? Or interviews? It is not easy to find the questions. There are no right answers to these questions.
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Over a period of time I am increasingly understanding the importance of questions. As I said, it is not at all easy to know the right questions. A person who knows a right question, knows a lot. Perhaps more than a person who knows a right answer. Over a period of time I have come to a stage wherein I believe in those who know the right questions more than those who know the right answers. I am getting convinced that they can help me better. That is, mostly, why I think research will help me. Research is one of the ways to go out in search of questions. If you are good and have tried as much as is required, you will find the right questions. Research will also help you get associated with others who are also fascinated by questions. They are all at different stages: some are full of answers and want to get rid of them, some are in search of questions, some have found questions and are looking for answers, some are just full of questions and happily don't need answers. Well, perhaps this is a tad ideal. All research labs are quite grounded in reality, but it doesn't matter. You get the point. It's good fun, in fact, with differnt kinds of people around. We are a very small group here, but we are doing fairly good. We should do much better.

Let me conclude this long piece by noting that perhaps there is not much point in knowing questions. It will only push you to a perennial state of doubt and may even lead you to a thorough dissatisfaction with your current state. But it is only from such a state can you take that leap to go behind questions and find answers for yourselves.

I am far far far away from reaching that stage yet. I wish I reach somewhere near that, eventually.