Asking the right question

The key to getting to a good solution is in asking the right questions.

Recently my son came into the kitchen where I was cooking. He wanted to ask me how to do something in his Minecraft mod.

He wanted to know how create a DNA extractor.

I was in the middle of making some naan breads so couldn’t google it for him that second. When I tried to find the answer I couldn’t find the extractor. It didn’t seem to exist.

This isn’t odd in Minecraft. Most mods aren’t well documented.

Frustrated I told him I couldn’t find it. I asked him why he wanted the extractor. What it’d let him do. Turned out one of his dinosaurs had died. He wanted to create it again and only had the meat left over from the last one.

He didn’t want a DNA extractor. He wanted his dinosaur back. And he had some raw materials to use but no way of getting a new dinosaur.

I googled about the dinosaur meat. I found the answer in about 30 seconds. He can use the meat to get the DNA he wanted with tools he already had.

He was happy. So was I.

It also made me realise how I should have been asking why he wanted the thing in the first place. What outcome he wanted and why.

It’s not always about being resourceful. It’s often about asking the right questions.