When I encounter a question, I often want an answer immediately. Search, read, save a few links. After that routine, it feels as though the question has been dealt with.
But an answer that arrives too quickly can remain in someone else’s language. I can repeat the conclusion without understanding why the question was worth asking.
Describe the confusion first
Now, before searching, I try to write down three things:
- What do I know so far?
- Where, exactly, am I stuck?
- If I understood this, how would it change the way I see things?
I can’t always make the questions clear. That is useful information in itself. Perhaps the real question hasn’t emerged yet.
Allow the conclusion to wait
Leave the question alone for a few days. Keep living. While walking, talking, or reading something unrelated, a new connection may surface on its own.
I’m not sure how this happens. But I am becoming more willing to keep an empty space instead of filling it immediately.
This patience has also changed how I approach learning to read again.