Then, I got to high school and met Mr. White, math department head, and, to my good fortune, my teacher for Algebra 2/Trigonometry. He told me there is no such thing as a non-math person: everyone could learn and love math, it just might take a different method of instruction to get them there. He offered to give me and a few other students help during 0 period and after school--whichever worked best. I remember asking him, "You really think you can help me confidently find the answers to problems like these?" and most of all, I remember his answer: "I think I can help you learn to ask the right questions to confidently solve problems like these."
It really doesn't matter what the subject area; asking the right questions is the only way we get to the very best answers. It is how new inventions are born, cures are discovered, and the trickiest of problems are solved. So what is the secret, then? Is there, in fact, an art or skill involved in developing the right questions? We often reply to others, "That is a good question!" when we find ourselves confronted with a question that is difficult to answer. So is that it then? Is a good question characterized by being difficult to answer?
According to Vincent F. Hendricks, professor of formal philosophy and logic at The University of
Open questions are good if you want an answer that includes consideration and assessment, for example: "What's so intriguing about a good detective story?" The danger of asking open questions is that they can be too open. For example, "What is the most important problem we must solve?" A question like this is so open, we don't know how to answer, and it may create more problems than it solves! What type of problem are we talking about? Is it environmental, economic, political, scientific or personal?
Closed questions are good if you want a very clear answer, for example, "Can you ride a unicycle?" You can only answer this type of question very simply, in this case, "yes" or "no." The danger with closed questions is that they often produce answers that make things seem simpler than they are in reality. Hendricks suggests that if you want to become more informed, "A good question is not necessarily one you can answer "yes" or "no" to, but one where your answer depends on conditions or qualifications. Open questions invite reflection, but they need a frame or a context to help us understand and focus on the specific issues that are needing our concentration.
Hendricks has developed three rules of asking good questions that are as follows:
1. Frame the question- give it a context. This is how you avoid talking at cross-purpose.
2. Establish some agreed facts. The more you agree about the framing of the question, the clearer your answer can be.
3. Ask a short, clear, precise question to avoid ambiguity. If any doubts arise over how to answer the question, you'll get a bad answer because you have asked a poorly formulated question.
Click on the link here to read an article in Forbes Magazine about asking the right questions. Tell me the single thing that stood out to you the most in that article. Then, check out the "mystery puzzle below." What three questions must you ask yourself in order to come up with the solution? What is that solution? I am interested in hearing your theories!
Forbes link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidsturt/2013/10/18/are-you-asking-the-right-question/#189da4083d38
The Case of the Insured Painting
Conrad Sleuth’s alarm clock and telephone rang at the same time. He turned off the alarm and answered the phone.
“This is Hilda Dean,” a young woman said. “Someone broke into my house last night and stole a valuable painting.”
Sleuth took her address, put on some clothes, and drove to her house. She let him in, and he asked her to tell him exactly what had happened.
“I was asleep,” she said, “When the howling wind woke me up. I got up to close the window, and I thought I heard a noise downstairs. When I got downstairs, I realized that the street light was out, and it was too dark to see anything. So I lit a candle and walked out on the front steps. Sure enough. I saw a man running off.”
“Then what did you do?” Sleuth asked.
“I came back inside and looked things over,” she said. “Nothing seemed to be missing, so I went back to bed. Then, this morning, I noticed that a painting had been taken from the basement.”
“Is the painting insured?” Sleuth asked.
“Well, yes. But money will never replace it.”
Have you called the police, Ms. Dean?”
“No. I’ll call them now.”
“I’ll do it.” Sleuth said. “While we’re waiting for them, you can decide whether you want to repeat your story to them – or tell them the truth.”
In the Forbes article, I learned the story of how and why the cell phone came about. I found it incredibly interesting that a man simply asked, “why” and as a result, set the world up for a century based on his invention. That simple question has brought the world into an age where just about everyone and everything revolves around his product. Asking why something is the way it is, brings about incredible new ideas. I think the most important piece of that article was the first step given. The pause. This is such a little idea and without much thought, insignificant. However, when one pauses from the trail they have begun on, they can take a moment to look around them and possibly change direction. Sometimes, that pause leads to something even better and it happens to be what was needed to get to that next big thing.
ReplyDeleteLooking over the puzzle, I started off clueless. I honestly have always been interested in detective shows and things of that nature but I am not very good at solving them. In attempt of solving the insured painting case I had to ask myself one important question, What clues or claims were unsupported? This lead me to see the mistakes the woman told in her story. For one, the woman claims to have been awoken by the howling wind, but there couldn't have been wind or it would have blown out the candle. Then, had the burglar truly been there to rob her, he would not have known where the exact painting was and only stolen it. He likely would have stolen more than that and not simply gone after a single painting. Lastly, the woman confidently claiming she had insurance on the painting solidified the idea that she was behind the whole thing. She was in it for the insurance money. Pausing to ask these kinds of questions and really open up to other perspectives reveals all kinds of truths.
Yes - in this fast paced world, taking time to pause is SO important, and so much can come about it!
DeleteOne thing I heard said once was that when his technology was taken away for a week, (by his choice as an experiment) a man said he found himself able to complete a thought. Very profound! Pauses are very important in theater, as well - a well planned pause by an actor can be more powerful than a monologue to the audience.
1) Why would the robber use her window to get in,on the second story might I add, to steal a painting from the basement, and then leave through the front door. It just didn't make sense, especially if they didn't steal anything else.
ReplyDelete2) Why hadn't she called the police when she had realized someone had broken in.
3) If the painting was so valubal why didn't she check on it right away?
What stands out to me is the "Pause". We spend so much of our life rushing through it, passing through each moment and oportunity as though we are racing to some amazing end goal... But we arn't, we only get closer to our death, never further away, and many people try to ignore it. Usually because they are afraid of death or can't handle it. But for the same reason of always distracting ourselves so we don't think about it, we should stop and think about it. Stop and, pause, and enjoy the things that life has to offer, bad and good. To think, "Is this really worth my time?" or the even simpler but many times over more complex, "Why?". We can stop and enjoy life if we don't pause and breath.
After reading the Forbes article, I learned a lot of new and valuable information/tips. I find it amazing how one person can make such a remarkable and life changing difference to this world, simply by just stating what was on their mind and asking the simple question "why?". Its very extraordinary how one person with one question changed the world in numerous ways, for example, back then who wouldve known that the world now would be so addicted and dependent on technology. He has made this era revolve around his invention once again by simply asking a question. Many people are afraid to ask questions including myself in some cases, although we do not realizing the question we have may be life changing. In my opinion, the most important part of the article was "the pause". I feel like this has opened my eyes in a variety of ways. For example, my first impression of this section of the article made me think about thinking about what you have to say before you regret what was said. In some cases, many people do not think before they speak which can hurt a persons feelings. But after re-reading this section a few times, it made the impression that sometimes silence can be stronger than anything you have to say. In many situations where I feel that what I have to say will make the situation worse, silence is a better option so you can really "pause" and think about what you have to say. Sometimes pausing or even staying silent can better the situation, leading to a better outcome per se.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading and analyzing The Case Of The Insured Painting, at first I had no clue what claims were lacking evidence. I knew that evidence was missing from the case, so I began to use my investigator instincts that I have developed from watching multiple detective series. Therefore, I re-read the case a couple more times and began to put a couple badly answered questions together. Hilda Dean states that her painting was a prize possesion, although if it was as important to her as she made it seem for one, she wouldve checked the basement to see if it was ther immediatley, and she also wouldve called the cops instead of Conrad Sleuth. Then, the woman confirming to Conrad that she had insurance on the painting slightly enhanced the thoughts that it was a set up just because she wanted the money from the insurance. Lastly, how did she hear the howling wind if the window that had been open was downstairs. After analyzing this case, I have learned that as a detective one must take every peice of evidence and try to piece it together no matter how unnecessary it may seem.
From to forbes article, the simplest question can change the world. It was a simple question. If i'm trying to contact someone, why can't I contact them directly? Why are there so many hoops to jump through? This could change the world. And it did! I thought it was incredible that a simple question could become something so drastically life changing. It is admirable really. We often think of inventors as geniuses and these great creative minds with the capacity for something larger than life. In truth, anyone can be inventors. Asking the right question is the difference between a mediocre invention with little to no use and something that everyone will use on a daily basis. Sometimes, we fear simplicity. Simplicity isn't enough. But, if our questions are too complex and specific, we lack imagination and creativity. Asking the right question can literally change lives. We are often afraid to question anything really. And our fear limits our thinking ability. I think we need to branch out and learn to question more, but in the right way.
ReplyDeleteMy first assumption was that Hilda Dean was after insurance money. She tried to play it off casually when he asked if it was insured. She said it was valuable, but worth more than the insurance money. It was too offhanded. Most theft is either truly theft, or a plot to collect insurance money. The fact that she didn't call the police was also alarming. She obviously dodn't want the case solved if she waited until the next day to call. Especially on something that was supposedly so valuable. It would have been her first concern if someone had robbed the house. Seems like she wasn't too careful with her story.
The entirety of the Forbes article intrigued me but what really stood out was the pause. This intrigued me because pausing can make a huge impact on the questions being developed/asked. This makes me think of the common used phrase "think before you speak" and I feel like this makes everything a lot easier to take a pause to further develop a question/thought.Pausing is important to gather thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThe Case of The Insured Painting confused me a little bit at first and I originally couldn't piece it together. After going back and taking it line by line, the thought finally came to me. I had to ask "why would a burglar only steal a painting and nothing else", "how was she awoken by the wind if the upstairs window was closed", and "why would she call Conrad sleuth only and not the police". I figured out that it was indeed a setup when she mentioned that the painting was insured which led to the solution that she just wanted the money. I've learned that detective have to analyze everything first and then go back and reanalyze every small detail to properly piece things together to come to a conclusion.
In the article, what stood out to me was pausing. Marty was described as stepping back and pausing at the question to find what he really wanted to do/answer. The article gave so much advice on pausing and thinking about the question and being open to new and all ideas. Everything today is about time, speed, effieciency and getting it done right now or first. But the idea of stepping back and thinking about it for yourself first, to make sure you do it right really stands out to me.
ReplyDeleteAs for the mystery, you have to ask: How could she hear a noise downstairs over the howling wind? How could she be able to see a man running away with the light of a mere candle and yet not be able to catch him? And how would the candle be able to stay lit in the conditions of the howling wind when she stepped outside? The fact of the matter is, she couldn't and it wouldn't. With the streetlight out, if she couldn't be able to see a thing, neither could the robber. She never should have been able to hear the noise downstairs if the wind was loud enough to wake her up and she never should have been able to find or see the man with just the candle. She must have simply made the story up and possibly used truths such as 'the streetlight being out' and 'the howling wind' to set up the story and lie well enough to commit insurance fraud.
The article taught me that the best way to find a solution is to take a step back and take time to think over your thoughts. Nothing good can come if you rush everything. I Feel like this step is important because everyone is in a hurry to get things done to move on to the next task, no one really takes time to evaluate their questions or solutions; they don't focus on the process of finding solutions.
ReplyDeleteAs for the puzzle, Why did Hilda dean contact Sleuth and not the police first? If it was as valuable as she claimed it to be wouldn't she call the police first. How did she not see the painting missing when she said she made sure nothing was taken? Unless she personally destroyed the painting. How much is the painting worth? If the painting was worth a lot of money then it would make sense for her to claim it was stolen to get money for it.
Einstein's quote stood out to me because it really is true that when a certain question is answered, everything suddenly clicks and you understand.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't necessarily believe the woman in the mystery because she said the wind was howling, making it seem like a very windy night. She then walked out onto the front steps with a candle, which would have blown out in those conditions, causing her not to see the man she claims robbed her running away.
Personally I found the Forbes article really interesting because it allowed me realize that society as a whole, along with its many aspects, could never evolve or improve without the right questions being asked. When referring to businesses or other organizations that produce some sort of product, asking the right questions allows for improvements of these products which allows for success and efficiency that could reach far beyond the market. The section on pausing also stood out to me because it simplified what is needed for a person to ask the right questions. It shows how everyone is capable of formulating these questions even if it's not the quickest process. It shows how the questions need to be thought out and mulled over before becoming something great. The article as a whole was very interesting because it shows how the right questions can affect generations and can also be continuously built upon to create even larger breakthroughs.
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of holes that were found in Hilda Dean’s story that I had missed when first reading. As I read it through it a little slower, I began to have more and more questions. Why didn’t she call the police in the first place? How did she see the burglar running away from her house if the street light was out? Wouldn’t the candle have been blown out by the howling wind that was so strong and loud that it woke her up? These different questions allow for the story to reveal its holes and red flags which ultimately lead Sleuth to believe that her story was false and that she was lying. This also shows a lot about the power of asking the right questions in general. Sometimes investigating some of the smaller and seemingly unnecessary information can allow for large changes on both small and large scales.
What stood out to me was the section about pausing. It is assumed that everyone in today's age should have an opinion on every situation no matter if it just happened. What I find interesting is that thought and reflection are key to solving problems. Maybe that is why we always have so many problems and no answers today. Nobody stops to take it all in and come up with a way to solve the problem. Speed and directness are the keys to modern society, but that might be what is hurting us the most.
ReplyDelete1) Why didn't she call the police?
2) Why was her immediate reaction to go outside?
3) Why didn't she check if the painting was gone if that meant so much to her?
She set up the crime to gather the insurance money on the painting.
The thing that stood out to me the most in the Forbes article was the section that was written about pausing. It made me think about all of the times that I have tried to hurry up and blurt something out, but then realizing as soon as it came out of my mouth that I should have never said it in the first place. It said that before you speak, you should think about what you're going to say and come up with a good way to approach the question you are about to ask, because if you don't think about it at first, then the adrenaline will come in and you'll ask questions that might not be as useful. Rewording a question can make all the difference when you are trying to find out information, because a simple word or two can determine whether or not the recipient of the question will fully understand what you are trying to understand. This can be applied to everyday life as well. Pausing before you say something is a good thing to practice. Take an argument for example; when things get heated between two people, you try to say the first thing that comes to your mind to try and win the argument. If you stutter, then you may look dumb, and you will not feel as effective. However, this can inflict pain, because often times in arguments you don't think before you speak, which can result in some very hurtful things being said. I know that I have done this a couple times and immediately regretted it. If you pause and think about what you are going to say, you will not just potentially avoid any harm being caused, but you may also be able to come up with a more clever comeback (;
ReplyDeleteI believe that Sleuth thinks Hilda Dean is lying, because of a couple things. First off, he asked her to tell him EXACTLY what happened the night before, and then when she finished her story, he asked her "then what did you do?" which ensures that he will know every detail of that night. I think he caught her whenever she said that she came back inside, looked things over, and then went to bed. I believe this, because previously, she said that street light had gone out, so the inside of her house was "too dark to see anything", which means that she would not be able to see anything inside her house. Now, she had lit a candle when she went downstairs, which would allow her to see around her house, but she said before she looked everything over, she went outside where she said she saw a man running off. However, the reason that she woke up in the first place was because the wind was howling, so if she went outside with a lit candle, wouldn't the candle be blown out by the howling wind? She never said she lit another candle when she went back inside, so it would still be dark, because the candle would have gone out, which would not allow her to see anything. However, if the candle had not blown out, how could she see a man running down the street by solely candlelight since the street light was out? Also, why did she not call the police if she suspected someone was in her house, or once she realized the painting had gone "missing"? I believe she was after insurance money, because she told the sleuth that the painting was insured, but that it was too valuable to be replaced with money. However, if it was so valuable, then why wouldn't she try and find it as soon as possible, instead of holding off on calling the police?
It all begins with asking the right question: In a science experiment, it all starts with a refined testable question. In the quest to make the next revolutionary product, as had Marty, it all started with a great initial question to spark an investigation.
ReplyDeleteWhat stood out to me most about this article is the quote from Einstein: "If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes." It displays the crucial role a question plays in determining the solution to a difficult problem. With the right guiding question, one can definitely resolve many problems and challenges in life.
The key to asking constructive questions are the following:
Pausing, and taking a second to be able to reflect and really acknowledge what you want to solve. Additionally, being mindful of those you will affect the resolution of your question is good to take into account.
And, as far as The Case of the Insured Painting goes, I would ask myself the following:
1. Why did she call the sleuth before the police?
2. If she saw him running off with something, why did she just go back inside and not do something about it immediately?
3. Why didn't she mention that the man was holding a painting? Wouldn't she have realized what was gone based on the frame he had been holding?
These questions lead me to believe she is only in this for the money.
What stood out to me within the article was the section discussing "Think about the people", and how they elaborated on the importance of who will benefit and what they value. This caught my attention because I don't often find myself thinking about who exactly is being targeted, their values, how it may benefit them, or cause a different outcome. Which is very important to note as using the right words or implying the right ideas could easily change the outcome.
ReplyDeleteIn order to find the solution to The Case of the Insured Painting, I would personally consider 1. Why was the detective notified instead of the police ? 2. Why was she so concerned with lighting a candle and going outside when she could've called the police right then? 3. If the painting was so valuable, why would she keep it in the basement, not check if it was gone when she supposedly saw the man running, and then immediately suggest that "money would never replace it"?. To me it seems as if she is making up the story to manipulate her way into receiving money from the "painting".
I know you stated to tell you the single thing that stood out to us, but I couldn’t help but mention the two that stood out to me. First I really liked the Einstein quote and how much it related to this topic, it really struck me and I just simply liked it. Second I really liked the ending of, ‘What Difference Would People Love’, it stood out to me in the way that it made me think the most throughout the whole article, once again, I just really liked it.
ReplyDeleteThree questions that came to my mind are:
What time did the alarm go off?
Why does someone want a painting that ‘money can’t replace the meaning’ of?
What is the true story?
Looking back these seem to be simple and maybe dumb questions but they’re the original questions that came to mind. Sleuth probably thinks Hilda is lying because she came to him first and not the police, maybe to hide and manipulate what really happened or just make a story of some painting. For instance, where is proof that there ever was a painting? She may just want insurance money, but I believe there is more substance in this fake case to just say that it’s that, I’m just not sure what though.
I was most impacted by the section of the Forbes article suggesting that one of the greatest things we as people can do is simply pause. "The simple act of paying attention to your thoughts can provide the few degrees of adjustment that brings about the greatest innovation." That right there, is one of the best pieces of advice I've heard in a long time. Reflecting and dedicating time to yourself with the sole intention of refining your thoughts might be one of the greatest things you can do for yourself personally. I've noticed that I'm an incredibly emotional person, which often makes me think irrationally. Maybe even worse than this though is how illegible it can make my thoughts. I find myself thinking in fragments all the time, going too fast or being too emotional to fully understand what I truly feel. Not being able to truly understand your thoughts and emotions is one of the scariest things anyone can ever experience. The good thing though, is that, more often than not, this can be remedied by simply pausing and thinking. I've found that when even thinking to myself is too hard, that taking the time to write out my thoughts is one of the most empowering experiences ever. Words can not fully express how difficult it is to be completely honest with yourself and your thoughts when you have to write them down and read them back to yourself, but if you can get past that initial jump, it's more than worth it.
ReplyDelete--
After reading through Ms. Dean's story a few times I've created a few questions that point out a few flaws in her story:
-First and foremost, if the painting was irreplaceable and of incredible value, why didn't Ms. Dean check on the painting after she realized there had been an intruder in her home?
-Secondly, how would Ms. Dean have been able to see the intruder? Assuming that the wind was great enough to wake her up, it's reasonable to assume that the wind would have blown out her candle the moment she stepped outside. And with no street lights on, that makes it impossible for Ms. Dean to see the intruder.
-Assuming that Ms. Dean was actually able to see the intruder running off, wouldn't she have seen that the intruder had her painting? She doesn't mention seeing the intruder carrying anything, but if he never reentered her home, he would have had to have already taken the painting. And, while I don't spend my free time running with paintings, I assume that's a fairly hard task to do efficiently.
-Why didn't Ms. Dean call the police first? This one is pretty cut and dry. It makes no sense that Ms. Dean would call a private investigator before the authorities. Beyond this, even if she didn't believe that the intruder had taken anything, wouldn't she still call the police, if only for safety/precautionary measures?
These holes in her story, on top of her insistence that the painting was insured make it appear that she's only out to get the painting's insurance money.
It's so interesting when you take time to consider how asking a different question can lead you to the real answer. All it takes is looking at it from a different point of view in order to see the full picture. In the story some questions that could lead to the answer include:
ReplyDelete-Why didn't she call the police first?
-Why would a robber enter through the second story window, that is also in her bedroom?
-If the painting is so valuable why didn't she check it first?
-How big was the painting? And if it was large, wouldn't she be able to see the intruder run off with it?
Some of these questions make it clear as to why the detective knew she was lying in the first place. He already was asking the different questions, getting closer to the real answer.
The one thing that stood out to me in the article was when asking the right questions you have to mostly consider the feelings of other people to make a huge change. Usually when people have ideas they don’t think about who the product would benefit that much, but they think about how the product would benefit them, and sometimes they aren’t looking at enough people and they think their product won’t help many people, when in reality it can, they’re just looking in the wrong place.
ReplyDeleteQuestions on the Quest For Exterminating all thieves: 1. Why grab a candle lady? That just seems dumb when you could turn on your front porch lights big dummy. 2. Why not call the police first thing after you’ve been robbed? Unless you hate the po-po you should call the police fo sho. 3. If you said nothing seemed to be missing at night, then come back and say Oh wait a painting is missing why didn’t you notice the IRREPLACEABLE PAINTING that you value so much was missing you big dingus?
This lady is really bad at telling lies. I think it’s fine the thief only took a painting, i’ll assume it was because the big fella was running out of time and needed to slide back to their home.
It is so funny how people don't realize anymore how important it is to ask questions. Questions are the key to understanding or not understanding something, it makes a big difference, how and what you ask. Taking a pause and reflecting I believe would help a lot of people with their stress and their other feelings that may be consuming them. People choose to be stress, you put that word and feeling onto yourself. You could have a lot of work that needs to be done and not feel stressed about it, it's just what you do to yourself. Throughout the article, I found this portion very interesting, "In our research we saw that asking the right question increased the odds of someone’s work having a positive affect on others by 4.1 times." I never would have thought, that asking the right question would give off a positive affect on yourself but others as well. This quote just proves that asking the "Right Question" is more important then we know. We as a whole need to start realizing it, not only would it make us better at work/school but it open our minds more to different solutions.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the mystery/puzzle you could tell something was off. The few things I asked myself was:
- If her painting was so valuable why wasn't that the first thing she checked on?
- If the painting was so valuable then why was it down in her basement?
- How big was the painting?
- If the painting was large wouldn't she see the intruder carrying it while he ran off?
- Why didn't she call the police immediately?
These questions I asked myself led me to believe that the 'victim' was not telling the truth.
The thing that stood out to me the most in the article was the way they used the example of the evolution of the telephone “Brick”. How they had to take a step back before starting and really ask why people should be calling a location. It was this very question that brought the telephones or the “Brick” to life. Three question that I would ask occurring to the crime is why didn’t Mrs. Dean did not call the police if she feels like someone has broken in? How much could the painting be worth and how could she felt safe to go back to sleep to such a spontaneous event? I think that Sleuth believes she is lying because it hard to believe her story. A normal person hears a noise downstairs they would check all the door and windows. There was no reason for Ms. Dean to go outside her front door. There also no way Mr.Dean could have seen the person running away from her house with a small lite candle and no street lights. Normally, a person would still call the police to report the event and would have a hard time falling back to sleep after feeling someone trespassing on their property. Out of all the things that the robber could have easily stolen, it hard to believe that he would only stole a painting. After knowing that the painting was insured it was simple to see that Mr. Dean accused someone of stealing to collect the insurance money.
ReplyDeleteI did not know that the creation of the cellphone came about because one man asked a question. The idea that it is our ability to ask questions that gets us to new places is what stood out to me the most because it's something I've never really noticed. Now, as I take this in and begin to look back on my life, I can already see evidence of this being true. Questions give us structure, which is why a good question must have context. For example, there are endless options of ideas to write about for my Written Task 2 on The Scarlet Letter. I was even given six guidance questions. However, these questions are still very open-ended, and it's not until I take one and fit it to the context of the novel that I can truly see the path of what I am going to write about.
ReplyDeleteAside from the questions that arose in my mind such as "Why is the fact that the Sleuth's alarm and phone going off at the same time important to the story?", the first question I would have for Ms. Dean is as follows: Why would you hide such a valuable painting in the basement?
The more I re-read the story, the more confused I am, but it also leads me to more questions such as whether or not Ms. Dead noticed the running man carrying anything. I also want to know how many floors her house has, because if she went downstairs and "downstairs" meant the basement, how would she have noticed that the light was out? (And what does the light being out have to do with anything?) Or maybe I should be asking why she lit a candle to go outside when there is "howling wind". I'm honestly really confused and want the truth.
After reading some of the other comments, I now see the value in pausing before questioning rather than just re-reading. There were plenty of holes that I skipped right over that make much more sense now.
DeleteThe portion of the Forbes article that stands out to me the most is the facts from the research that they collected about asking the right questions. They found that asking the right questions “increased the odds of someone’s work having a positive affect on others by 4.1 times. It made the outcome 3.1 times more likely to be deemed important,” (Forbes). This significant shift from an average question to asking a question framed in the right way with a particular purpose is incredible to me! It demonstrates in a statistical manner how questions can improve your communication and cooperation with others.
ReplyDeleteMystery Puzzle questions
1.How could she see the man running away when the street light was out?
2.How did the robber get into the basement without leaving a door open or evidence behind?
3.Why didn’t she call the police after she ‘saw’ the suspicious man run away early in the morning?
4. How big was this painting? She should have seen him with the painting if he was carrying it.
My solution: Hilda Dean lied to Conrad Sleuth in order to get the insurance money to a painting that wasn’t stolen at all. Mrs. Dean probably fell on some hard financial times and thought that faking a robbery would be the easiest way to earn some quick cash.
The entirety of the Forbes article changed my perspective on how asking questions can easily lead to an answer. The one part of the article that really stood out to me was the quote that Einstein said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” This goes to show that the answer to a question doesn't have to be difficult to find, as long as the questions you're asking are relevant and will guide you to the answer. Questions are kind of like a map that take you to the answer. A road of long and confusing questions will only get you lost and more confused then you were initially. Meanwhile, a straight and 'to the point' question will lead you to the correct answer. The fact that just one simple question guided Marty to the creation of the cell phone proves that sometimes simpler questions will provide a simpler answer.
ReplyDeleteThe questions I asked in order to solve the case are:
1. Why did Ms. Dean call Sleuth before she called the police?
2. How did she see the man running outside if the street lights were out (the candle light wouldn't have been enough to see the man)?
3. If the wind was so strong that it woke Ms. Dean up, then why wasn't it strong enough to blow the candle out?
These are the questions that popped into my head when reading this case.
After reading the Forbes article, I learned the importance of asking the simplest questions to ensure validity and assurance in a statement. Something as simply as "how?" (or more importantly "why?") can affect a large aspect of theories. Asking questions correctly is heavily important in order to reach a deeper understanding of concepts, along with questioning authority and teachers. Our minds are constantly filling with questions about ideas we learn or concepts we aren't sure about, which makes the human mind so revolutionary and remarkable.
ReplyDeleteIn order to solve the case, it is important to mention some important fallacies in her experiment. These likely led the Sleuth to know Hilda was lying:
- Why wouldn't she check on the painting if it was her most valuable item?
- How did the strong winds not blow the candle out?
- How could Hilda Dean see the mysterious man run away if the street lamp went out?
These clues led him to assume she wasn't telling the truth.
After reading over the blog itself and the Forbes article I learned that sometimes it's best to pause and think about not what is being asked, but what isn't being asked. After doing this answering and understanding the initial question becomes much easier. Einstein's quote, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” really summed up the article for me. By asking not just simple questions but the right questions one can see the bigger picture bigger picture of what is trying to be accomplished.
ReplyDeleteSome things that seemed off in the case were
- The fact that she didn't check the painting despite it being valuable
- The fact that the street lamps went out, which I assume would make it difficult to see the man running away
- Why she didn't call the police immediately, despite being robbed
From this it seems that she was most likely trying to claim the insurance money from the "stolen" painting since it happened to be covered, and that she is not telling the truth.
After reading Forbes article I feel that it really changed my perspective of asking the right questions that leads to the answer. What I found interesting from this article was the section titled "What difference would people love". I found this interesting because usually people don't like to make a difference, we are accustomed to doing things how we feel comfortable and not think about others. But the fact that when asked a relevant question can affect someone positively by 4.1 times and made the outcome 3.1 times more important that comes to show how important it can be to come up with the right question for the right solution.
ReplyDeleteIn order to solve the Mystery the 3 questions that popped in my head were:
1. Why didn't she call the police before?
2. If the painting was so valuable why didn't she check the basement until the morning and not that same night before going to bed?
3. How could she see the man running away if she only had a candle lit, and wouldn't she had seen him carrying something?
The thing that really stood out to me in this article was the pause. I think that this is very important to do because we never really stop to enjoy what we are doing. A lot of the time we just keep going or we post on social media nonstop, but we never truly live in the moment. I think that it is good that this article has made me realize this because it is important to be able to enjoy what we are doing, and to be able to live in the moment.
ReplyDeleteI find it strange that she never called the police when she realized that someone had been in the house.
I also find it strange that she had said the street light was out so she lit a candle and could see the man running. but if she could see him then why couldn't she see the painting?
And lastly I find it strange that she never thought to look for the painting since it was valuable.
Within the Forbes article the thing that impacted me the most was the Albert Einstein quote: “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” I related to this quote earlier this month when I was writing a speech for TOK. It was Superbowl Sunday, and the speech was due the next day. I hadn’t begun to write the speech because I could not think of a knowledge question to save my life. As mentioned in the Forbes article it can be hard to ask the right questions, however new knowledge is dependent on it. And so, I paused, I forgot about TOK and watched the Eagles win the Superbowl. It was this break from stressing about my impending speech that allowed me formulate a question, and the rest of the speech followed 20 minutes later. Needless to say, that was my highest scoring speech. Before I had never paid attention to the questions I was asking or the importance of their quality. Both reading the Forbes article and this experience have confirmed to me that the answer truly lies within the question.
ReplyDeleteQuestions About “The Case of the Insured Painting”
1) Why didn’t she call the police first?
2) How did the wind not blow out the candle if it was “howling”?
3) If she looked things over and the painting was irreplaceably valuable, how did she not notice that it was missing until the morning?
My biggest takeaway from the article was the step of thinking about that difference that your audience would love. To me, this is the step that really elevates your question to the next level. I really loved that the article said that thinking about what our audience would love, not just like, activates “a deeply human power of creative energy inside”. Creativity is really the key to making anything special or stand out, so considering what the audience would love is essential, or at least extremely helpful, if I want to create something above average. This idea of predicting what your audience would love and creativity has so many other applications besides formulating questions so it has the most value in out world compared to the other steps. Creativity is something I struggle with, specifically how to become creative because there is not clear-cut way to be creative, so thinking ahead about my audience’s wants will hopefully help my in the future.
ReplyDeleteAs for “the Case of the Insured Painting”, the three major questions the holes in the story lead me to ask is
1. If it was such a windy night, wouldn’t Hilda’s candle blow out when she went outside?
2. How could Hilda see the man running off it was pitch black outside, due to the streetlamp being off, with just the light from a candle?
3. After seeing the man run off, why wouldn’t she not check on the painting in the basement if it was of such irreplaceable value to her?
Because the title of the puzzle is “The Case of the Insured Painting” and the detective asked Hilda if the painting was insured and she admitted it was, I think she had someone steal the painting so she could collect the insurance money.
I think the single thing that stood out to me most in the article was the third and last question the author's proposed asking when trying to do great work: "What difference would people LOVE?"
ReplyDeleteThat really resonated with me because too often do we intellectually minimize the positive change we believe we can make as individuals. We don't strive for the ideals we believe in that could actually change the world; instead we settle for what we only think we are capable of achieving. Therefore, we lose our potential to innovate technology, evolve perspectives , discover cures, or develop policy. When we ask the best questions, we give ourselves the opportunities to create great things.
If the "howling wind" woke Hilda up, how would a candle not be snuffed out once she walked outside?
Why doesn't Hilda Dean turn on a light INSIDE her house before going outside?
How can Hilda find/light a candle in her house if it was "too dark to see anything"?
We know Hilda's lying because of the logical inconsistencies in her story highlighted in my questions above.
What stood out to me when reading the Forbes article was when the three practical assists was brought up. The first practical assist introduced was called "pause". In order to create the right question, which'll lead us to greater quality work, thinking is needed. Instead of reflecting after the work is done, reflect on the purpose before jumping in. I tend to get frazzled, and just jump in and see what I end up with. I don't necessarily think, but rather jump in immediately, not giving much thought. But, after reading the article, having a clear mind, and allowing myself time to think and pay attention to my purpose and choices, etc, I could come up with a well formulated question and a more effective product.
ReplyDeleteThe Case of the Insured Painting
I was left yet again, frazzled. There's so much in my mind that I don't have time to process. Sometimes the people or the word just goes by too fast for me that I feel like I can't keep up and I have to find every way possible to catch up. But, it was time for me to just sit and process the information given and not worry about how fast paced things are. I had to focus on my purpose.
I soon organized my thoughts and looked at the text in front of me and thought:
1) If the wind is howling and Hilda is coming out, wouldn't it blow out the candle? If the street light was out, as well as what I assume the candle, how was she able to see the man running.
2) Also, if something, like the painting, was so valuable to her, why didn't she check it out in the first place after seeing the man run off?
3) Why would she not call the police before the Conrad Sleuth?
She seems to be lying and only wanted the insurance money seeing that the painting has been insured. She is unreliable and acts like a victim.
I find it amazing how the most innovative creations are the result of ideas that are already in people's minds, even if they're only small, incomplete ideas at first. People contain within themselves the capacity for brilliance, if they will only allow themselves to see what they really want to accomplish. The first step from the article, pause, is incredibly powerful, in that it allows the thinker to open themselves up to a whole new level of possibilities. However, the last part, what would people love, is also fascinating in how it applies to the thinker themselves, because the creation that is the most impactful is that which the creator themselves is most passionate about.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the detecive puzzle, the three most important questions are as follows:
1. What evidence necessarily prevents Hilda's story from being viable?
2. What would Hilda gain from lying?
3. What actually happened to the painting?
The solution lies in the answers to these three questions.
Firstly, if Hilda got up because of a howling wind, it is possible that, even with a window closed, a noise would not be easily detectable from downstairs. Then, to get downstairs, she would have had to turn on a light, since it was too dark to see; she would not have risked falling down the stairs in the dark. Once downstairs, she could not have been able to see a candle, since it was too dark. Even so, if she had lit a candle and gone outside, the howling wind, as others have pointed out, would have blown out her candle. Finally, with a simple candle, there would not have been enough luminescence to see a man running away. Therefore, speaking in terms of probability, her story is highly unlikely.
The answer to the second question is straightforward. In the story, Hilda states the painting is insured: if it was stolen, as she claims, she would get money to replace it. If the painting was not, in fact, stolen, but everyone thought it was, she would receive the money, and still get to keep the painting for herself. Put simply, her motive is greed.
Answering the last question is a case of simple deduction. If everyone believing the painting is stolen when it is not results in Hilda receiving money and keeping the painting, it is likely that she hid the painting and fabricated the story to cover her tracks.
What I found to be the most intriguing element of the Forbes article was Einstein's quote, "If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” I think we can all agree Albert Einstein knew a thing or two about thinking and problem solving, so it was very interesting to see his brilliant perspective on approaching problems. I think it captures the essence of what education is all about. Referring to the section of the blog that focuses on math, it’s easy to look at a calculator or ask someone else for the answers, but to truly understand you must ask the right questions. Asking the right questions doesn’t just give you the answers; it gives you a new context for thinking.
ReplyDeleteThe Case of The Insured Painting would prompt me to ask:
- Why didn't she call the police when she saw someone running from the house?
- How did she see a man running off if the street light was out?
- How did her candle stay lit if she claimed a howling wind woke her up?
My theory is that she staged the crime to receive insurance money for the stolen painting.
The most striking point made by the two writers of the Forbes' article was that the writers suggested asking yourself: "what difference people would LOVE most?" In a world where we try to teach ourselves that one should not become so dependent on the opinions of others, we forget that it is, for the most part, human to rely upon the opinions of others. Considering how much we value independence it can be a depressing thought to process but I would beg to differ. It is this quality of human nature that makes being close friends with someone worthwhile, it validates being a good and honest person, it's what helps families grow and stay together. When we think of making others happy, what others will love most, we become motivated because it means we are working for the sake of those who matter, and those who we may come to care for in the future. It is a strangely selfless attribute of mankind that makes asking what someone else would love such an effective method of questioning.
ReplyDeleteMystery:
1.) If the painting held such intrinsic value to the woman that "money would never replace it", then why did she feel the need to describe it as a valuable painting and why was it not on display for her in the house instead of in the basement?
2.) If a streetlight being out made it too dark to see anyone, how could a mere candle be enough to see a man running off?
3.) If the wind was howling so strongly, how could a candle stay lit long enough to be able to see someone running off?
The woman's story is far too awry for her to have not feigned the theft of the insured painting; some people would do anything for insurance money.
The Forbes article was defiantly fascinating to me. Not only did I learn about how the cellphone was created, we so much rely on, but I also have more confidence on when and what to ask. Something that stood out within this article to me was the "Think about the People". I found this to jump up at me because of the way society has been so far. Thinking of other is a less common topic found. I saw it interesting because it's not only looking for an answer that you need to regain knowledge but also considering the profession and content of the person whom is being asked.
ReplyDeleteWith the riddle, the questions I must ask myself are more logic based and must think of the reasons for both Ms. Dean and Sleuth. I must ask:
1. If this "valuable painting" was so important to Ms. Dean in the first place why didn't she go the police instead of Sleuth in the morning?
2. Why and why was the Street light out? They aren't the easiest things to turn off. It's possible that the "howling wind" was a sign of a storm. However, if there was a storm no one would steal a painting.
3. Who is Sleuth to Ms. Dean? If we figured out the context between the characters we'd understand more about the reason why Sleuth accused her of lying.
What stood out the most in the article was the absolute truth in the reality that we have to ask the right questions in order to arrive to an answer that is worthwhile. The part where one has to pause first and just think is something that really rings true with me. This is because more and more people act before they think nowadays. Deep, contemplative thoughts are becoming more and more rare as it’s being replaced with impulsive actions without thought of the repercussions, which is why it’s so important to continually reiterate the idea of pausing and thinking in such a fast-paced society filled with the constant activity of instant gratification.
ReplyDeleteIn respect to the detective case, there are multiple inconsistencies in Ms. Dean’s story that can be brought to light. My three questions that would most tear apart her story are as follows:
How could you see a man running away with just a candle’s light if it’s windy outside?
If the man had to have stolen the painting, why didn’t she describe him as running away with the painting and not just running away (why was it an afterthought)?
Also, it’s unlikely to have seen him very well in the first place if the streetlight was out, so how could she have seen him from just the radius of the candlelight even if it didn’t get whiffed out?
Bonus Questions: Why did she light the candle in the first place? Couldn’t she have just turned on the lights inside the house to illuminate the outside more effectively? If she couldn’t turn on the lights inside her house because she had no electricity, how could she have been able to see her way around her house in the first place to go and light a candle?
Reading this article made me realize how important is it to step back and examine your surrounding and "spend time with your thoughts" as stated in the article. Asking the right questions with careful thinking and consideration has always led to much more positive outcomes. This article made me think of all the times others, including myself, have said things impulsively and without thinking. Taking even just a few seconds, preferably minutes to think of future actions and words can greatly impact you and the ones around you. What would our world be like today if all the great inventors, artists, musicians...etc of our and past times had just simply followed along and not asked questions and gone about situations differently? Take all of your questions deep inside of you and explore them all for they made lead to revolutionary life changing decisions.
ReplyDeleteThe Case of the Insured Painting:
I had to read this short mystery a few times over before coming up with my questions. At first, it seemed like just another robbery until I read the last line where Hilda Dean was asked if she wanted to tell the police the truth. Many things stood out to me after re-reading the mystery.
1. Why did she not check the basement first?
If the painting was SO valuable and it was even insured, why did she not check to see if it was still there.
2. Why would she wait so long to call someone and tell them about the "robbery"?
If someone breaks into your house and you apparently see someone running out of your house, why would you NOT call the police. Instead, Hilda decided to go back to sleep.
3. How did she hear a noise downstairs if the "howling wind" was so overpowering?
Why would she leave a window open anyway?
4. If the street light was out, how did the robber see inside the house, especially in the basement?
HOLD UP!!! What made the robber go to the basement anyway?People usually display pricey paintings where they can be seen not in basements where no one can see them.
5. How could have Hilda seen the man with just the light of the candle?
Wasn't it also windy? The candle light would have been blown out. Do her lights in the house not work? She could have turned on the lights...
At this point, it is evident that Hilda Dean has made this up and is by far the worst liar. She was only after the insurance money.
What really stood out to me in the article is the approach Marty took in order to complete his goal and so many others. Is to first create the right question. For without understanding the purpose of the question we can not properly assess the steps in order to complete our objective.
ReplyDeleteSuch a crucial little step can make a huge difference.
Just imagining a world without a proper cell phone. The leap is extraordinary.
Mystery
We must understand the purpose of the story, the motive. A man is stealing an art piece that is located in the basement.
With the content I assume, it seems as if the robber came through the wind shaft on the 2nd floor down the stairs until he reached the basement where he exit through the front door. And miraculously the lady is able to take out a candle (that does not provide that much light) to see the perpetrator. We should also consider the fact that she has insurance on the painting if it was stolen.
This seems fairly odd.
1. How is the perpetrator able to enter through the second floor by pass you while you were sleeping when he was making a lot of noise downstairs.
2. How does the perpetrator know about this valuable piece of art? Is it well known?
3.How did the miss have enough time to identify the perpetrator in pitch black darkness with a flimsy candle? Would the perpetrator not have enough time to escape?
Solution- It is obvious the miss was trying to get insurance coverage on her "stolen" painting by faking a robbery.
What stood out to me mos from this article was the recommendation to "pause" before asking a question. Often times out of an innate reaction, we ask questions based on what we think we need or want to know in the moment. But I agree with more time and thought, we can figure out what is most important to know and what are purpose is in asking these questions. I think we would find more that once contemplated, what we really want or our "purpose" changes.
ReplyDeleteFrom the puzzle, the three main questions I would ask is:
1. Why did the woman not report to the police when she saw the man running or even after?
2. How was the woman able to see the man running with a candle alone (and the street light out?"
3. How was the candle able to remain lit outside if she reported it was windy?
Due to the incongruities of her statements, I would say that the woman is lying, and has chosen to report this crime for ulterior reasons.
The one thing in the Forbes article that stood out the most to me was the suggestion to simply pause. So often people get so caught up in what they’re doing or they’re thinking and forget to pause once in a while. When working constantly, it's easy to get stuck in the mode of thinking and focusing on a specific task or problem without a break. But pausing can give you valuable time to gain perspective on the situation and approach it in a better way. It’s also easy to get overwhelmed when working or thinking all the time, which is often counterproductive to your goals as becoming overwhelmed can make it difficult to think and assess your situation properly. Pausing even for just a minute allows you to reset and re approach your work or problem with a better mindset or clearer thinking.
ReplyDeleteThe three questions I would ask myself to come up with a solution are: What parts of Hilda’s story are suspicious and why do they seem that way? How did Hilda respond to her situation and would I have responded in the same way? Which pieces of information are completely unnecessary to the solution?
As for the solution itself, I believe that Hilda is lying for several reasons:
1) How did she see the intruder when he was supposedly escaping outside? She said that the street light was out, so she couldn’t have used that to see. As well, her candle likely would have been blown out by the wind she mentioned, or not provided enough light at all to see someone that was a distance away from her.
2) Why didn’t Mrs. Dean call the police first? That seems like the most natural and logical course of action, why didn’t she follow it?
3) Why didn’t she mention that she saw the person running off carrying her painting? Either the person she saw wasn’t carrying her painting, which would further complicate the story, or she forgot to mention it, which seems very unlikely. The fact that she didn’t immediately check on her painting, which she would have done if she saw him carrying anything that looked like a painting, nearly confirms that she didn’t see anyone carrying anything, which is a pretty big hole in her story. This is assuming that the painting isn’t small enough to be concealed easily on someone’s person.
The thing that stood out to me most in the article is that we essentially are where we are today in portable communication because one person decided to step back and pause for a second to ask a very important question.
ReplyDeleteAs for the mystery, the first question I decided to ask was, "why would she not call the police at night before going back to bed?" Any normal person would call the police immediately if they believed their home had been broken into, not just inspect things and then go back to bed.
The next question I asked was, "If it was too dark to see anything, how was she able to see the man running off from just the candlelight?" She said the streetlight was off and it was "too dark to see anything" so she must not have been able to see someone running away in the distance.
The final question I asked was, "how had she heard a noise downstairs through the 'howling wind'?" She said the wind was howling loud enough to wake her up, so she's likely would not have been able to hear a muffled sound from an intruder downstairs, especially if her window had been open.
From these questions, I'm sure Conrad was able to draw the sure conclusion that she must have been lying about the whole story. She was likely trying to get the insurance money from the painting as she was quick to ensure him that the painting had been insured, but tried to cover herself by saying, "money can't replace it". I believe Conrad must be very intelligent to have been able to evaluate these clues from her story in his head in just a few minutes and conclude that she must be lying.
I never realized just how greatly asking the right question could affect the outcomes that the answer brings. "The right question can be a disruptive agent, cutting through years of complacency to redirect a team or a company’s focus." This line from the article stood out to me from the get go; sometimes we don't realize we're on the incorrect path until the right question is asked, and it completely changes our course onto the right path.
ReplyDeleteNow, onto the puzzle.
My first question is this. If Hilda was on the second floor, and the front door was (assumedly) closed until the thief ran out, that means the window was open because of the intruder coming in that way. How on Earth did she sleep through someone coming into her house through what I assume is the window in her bedroom but not the wind? My second question is: if she saw the man running off, surely she would have seen the painting in his arms (paintings usually are fairly large and probably hard to hide, especially while running). How did she miss that? My final question is: if she knew that she had a valuable painting in her possession, why not immediately check to make sure it was still there? If you own something of high value, usually you want to make sure it's safe. (I know we were only supposed to ask three but I can't help but ask a fourth. Why keep such a valuable painting somewhere like the basement?) I believe that Sleuth knows Hilda is lying because of her mention of the wind. She heard a noise on a different level of her house over the wind that she couldn't even sleep through. The wind would've blown out the candle that she took outside to look for the man as well. Hilda's story was poorly put together and it cost her.
Personally I feel that the quote from Einstein is the most thought-provoking point in the Forbes article: “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” The first thing this quote leads me to conclude is that creating a good question takes time and is the first and most important action to take in order to solve a problem. This is because global, economic, and personal problems are not always easy to solve; these problems require a very concerted effort to combat the issues this earth faces.
ReplyDelete1. If Hilda Dean woke up from the "howling wind," how did the wind not snuff out the candle light?
2. Why does Hilda not call the police when she sees the man running down the street? The running man would seem suspicious if Hilda had the thought that someone was in her house, and she would end up calling the police. Why would she just go back inside without calling the police?
3. If Hilda was so comfortable falling back asleep after noticing that nothing was missing and seeing a man run off, why did Hilda check the basement in the morning? What was her purpose there?
ReplyDeleteAfter reading over the Forbes article the one thing that stood out to me was the value of pausing to ask the right questions instead of hastily going into a situation. In the Forbes article, there’s the example of Marty the young engineer, who created the first cell phone in 1973; if Marty had never asked himself the insightful question of, “Why is it that when we want to call and talk to a person, we have to call a place?” the world would’ve never gotten the first cell phone that immensely changed the way in which we communicate. Even today we can see how far Marty’s first invention of the cell phone has come, I mean we now have cell phones that can recognize your facial features in order to unlock your phone! It shows just how much the world of communication has developed just by Marty asking the right question.
In life, we are needed to make decisions in a short amount of time (usually) which doesn’t always allow us to sit and listen to our thoughts because we feel like we’re needed to take immediate action in our decision-making. But by at least trying to pause and take a minute to ourselves to listen to our thoughts, we can ask the right or wrong questions. I say right and wrong questions because we can always ask questions that don’t always have to be right, they can simply be questions that open the human mind. Meaning all questions don’t need to be the right ones to everyone but they can be the right ones to you. They can be the questions that allow you to open your mind to different possibilities to an answer. To think outside the box to gain your answer or simply gain the way to know the answer. I think this is a vital part in being a detective, taking a step back to assess the situation in a different angle in order to reach a conclusion. For example, in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue” Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, solves the murders of Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter by taking a step back and assessing every aspect of the murder in a different way to that of the Prefect of Police. Dupin came to the conclusion by asking the right questions about the pieces of evidence rather than hastily looking for a motive and pinning it on the wrong man. By doing so, Dupin solves the murders of the Rue Morgue. Dupin’s way of thinking is also seen in “The Case of the Insured Painting” Conrad Sleuth knew Hilda was lying because he looked into her account of the “break-in” in a different angle.
When I looked at the case I couldn’t come to a solution at first, but then I went back in and read the case a few more times and came to ask myself these three questions;
Why did Hilda not turn on the lights if it was dark?
If she knew the painting was valuable then why was that not the first thing she checked?
Why did she not immediately call the police after the break-in to report it?
So really, if Hilda was really concerned of the paintings whereabouts she would've called the police immediately to report the break-in and stolen painting. My theory is that hid the painting somewhere else, called the sleuth to report her story, and later when the painting could not be found she would collect the insurance money the painting had all while knowing she still had the painting tucked away somewhere. Conrad Sleuth knew she was lying because the painting was insured and she never called to report the break-in or the stolen painting probably because she didn’t want it to turn into a big deal. It’s a real case of testing yourself to look at the person’s nature because sometimes even the most innocent people can be capable of telling the biggest lies. Conrad saw that because he paused and looked into the case and asked himself the right questions which made him realize that the answer was in the question of, “Is the painting insured?. Showing that pausing and looking into our thoughts to ask the right question can be a valuable thing in making a decision because it taps into our the inner-mind of who we are and makes us think critically of a situation to get the right answer.
What stood out to me from the article was the "pause". Most of the time we don't even have the chance to pause because we are so rushed and consumed by our own stress that we just can't seem to put a break on it. Maybe if we took the chance like in what the article said, to stop and think, even with that our stresses can be solved and we wont be all in a scramble to do what we have to do.
ReplyDeleteThree questions:1)If there was so much wind outside that it woke her, why didn't her candle light go out?
2) Why would the robber jump in through the window in the second floor and come out through the front door like nothing?
3)If the piece of artwork was so valuable, why didn't she go and look and see if it was gone or not in the first place instead of checking in the morning?
From the Forbes article, the one piece of information that stuck with me was the first step of the question asking method, being pause. This step I feel is the most crucial in asking the right question and is also often the one missed by individuals. I know, especially for me, this step is one that I often forget considering I am a very impulsive and reactive person. Someone could tell me something insulting and rather than taking time to think about my response and prevent myself from getting angry, I tend to blurt out something to defend myself and bash the other person. This is totally the wrong call in any situation and I think by taking some time to think of the right things to ask the person, you could have a genuine conversation that doesn't get angry quickly.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the puzzle, the three main questions I would ask are as follows :
1) Even if she did light a candle to see in the "dark street" wouldn't the candle light only reach a certain distance before it would stop providing light?
2) What made her casually check the basement the next morning?
3) she said the painting was insured, so wouldn't she be able to commit fraud and say someone took the painting, just to get money.
From these three questions I definitely think she is lying and committing fraud for the money.
Response To The Article:
ReplyDeleteWhat I took away from the article is how important questions are the effects of asking the right questions, that may be some of the hardest. I liked the part of the passage “The effect of asking the right question is statistically profound.”, because it really is about questions that you ask, or nothing will never be solved. It also said that in their research that asking the right question increased the odds of someone’s work having a positive effect on others by 4.1 times and made the outcome 3.1 times more likely to be deemed important. So it's basically saying it is so important to ask questions, because it is likely to make a positive impact in whatever situation you are in. For example, in a business setting, like in a meeting or presentation, or in a classroom. Overall, questions are important! No matter how stupid people make you feel for having them.
Questions I Had In Story:
- If the painting meant so much to her why didn’t she check for it being there the night of?
- How could she see a man running if the street light was out?
- Why didn’t she call the police first? Or the night of the crime?
- Even though this isn’t a question, but it’s quite hard to “run off” with a probably big painting in their hands, and if she saw a man running off she never described seeing the painting in their hand.
What stood out the most to me in the Forbes Article was simply the section labeled, "Pause." In my life, I tend to be the opposite of a procrastinator and try to get all of my work done especially when doing the dishes or a manual task. However, because I do that, I tend to rush those tasks and I'll slip up on a couple dishes or I might have moved the heavy object to the wrong spot. I need to learn how to pause in the action, to take a moment, to get everything where it needs to be and not needing to take a double take.
ReplyDeleteAs for the puzzle these are the three questions I would ask:
How did she see her intruder when she couldn't see anything what so ever?
If she knew the painting was so important, why wouldn't she check on her painting first?
If the wind was so rough it woke her up, how did it not extinguish the candle when she went outside?
The thing that stood out the most in the Forbes article was the "pause" section. I feel that it is a skill that many of us have not developed, we are always looking into the future and rushing from one idea to the next. This is partly because of the immediate gratification that has become common, what we want is available when we want it. While this is a good thing it also means that we don't stop to consider our decisions or live in the moment. If we paused to think with no distractions it would be amazing what we could think of and work our way through.
ReplyDeleteMy three questions in regards to the mystery are:
1) Why didn't you call the police right away? She said that she saw the man running out of her home, and then just decided to go back to bed? Someone broke in to your house while you were sleeping, you should call the police, especially if you have expensive artwork in your basement.
2) How did she know someone was in her house? She said that the wind was so loud that it woke her up, but she was able to hear a noise downstairs?
3) Why did she only notice the painting was gone the next morning? She said she had looked things over and that everything was fine, so she surely must have checked the painting in the basement. Especially if it is valuable enough to be insured.
Reading the article really showed me that depending on what question you ask decides what kind of answer you get. Even if there is a small word change in what you say. I think after reading that I learned that the most crucial thing when asking questions is to ask the ones that people normally wouldn't. Look but over the problem you're trying to solve and get rid of all of the obvious detail. Don't ask question that when looking back at the information have been already answered. Once all that goes away look at what's left and ask the questions that the answers aren't yet presented in front of you. I think it's important to ask the question that require thought and more explanation and definitely make sure they hold significance as to what you're saying.
ReplyDeleteMy question in regard to the mystery are:
1.Why didn't she call the police right away?
2.How could she have seen the suspect if everything was dark?
3.If the painting was so valuable why didn't she check on it in that moment and only noticed it was gone the next morning?
After read this article I was really stunned how one question from Marty Cooper changed the outlook and the way we communicate in our day & age. What I also liked from the article was the part when it says " The affect of asking the right question is statistically profound. In our research we saw that asking the right question increased the odds of someone’s work having a positive affect on others by 4.1 times." I did not know how one simple question changes and affects others. Also I never really thought how asking question can be so crucial in any aspect.
ReplyDeleteQuestions: How did she know someone was in the house?
Why didnt she call the police?
How did she see the man running down the street?
The Forbes article was very interesting especially the pause section. I am a procrastinator but I'm always looking to the future and not looking the present. what do I need to do now? who will I do this right?
ReplyDeletequestions.
1. if it was dark how she see the suspect?
2. why didn't she call the police?
3. why didn't the candle light go out with the wind
The passage in the Forbes article that really stood out to me had to be the "Pause" section. I really need to work on pausing and thinking about my actions before pursuing them. In any situation especially in an argument or a conversation I may not like participating in, I usually respond with quite defensive and untrue statements without fully taking the time to think about them first. I am aware that I constantly make this mistake and it is something I am personally trying to improve.
ReplyDeleteMy questions for the mystery:
1.) If the painting was valuable why didn't she make sure it was still there right away?
2.) Why didn't she notify the authorities right when the crime was committed?
3.) If the wind was so strong that night why didn't the candle extinguish?
When reading the Forbes article, I believe the part that stood out to me most was the portion about "What difference would people LOVE?" because it was something I've never thoughts as strongly about before. Both steps before this one, "Pause" and "Think about the People" seemed like things I usually do in any necessary circumstance and while it does cross my mind to try to think of something new or outside of the box that would make a difference in some way I would group it with the thinking about the people portion since it applies to them. After reading this article I disagree with my previous thought process just because while they are similar, they are not the same nor do they have the same answers or results. By considering each separately, connections can be made between what the people need and what they want in order to come up with a strong argument or idea that could essentially change how people see the world in the same way cellphone development has changed so much in the past 45 years and is now a huge part of our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteWhen looking over the mystery puzzle, the most important questions to ask in my opinion were:
1. If the wind was so loud, how did she hear the noise from downstairs? The Sleuth also wasn't woken up by this same wind that kept Hilda up that night.
2. How didn't the "howling wind" blow out her candle when she got outside? Based on the fact her candle would have been blown out, how would she have seen the man running away and even if she did see him how did she not see him carrying a painting?
3.If she had seen him running away with the painting, why wouldn't she check on her valuable item first? With this, why didn't she immediately call the police when she realized both there may have been an intruder and when her painting was deemed missing?
After reading both articles I had thought about all of the things I have tried to solve before and I realized its not about the amount of questions you ask it's about how you ask them. You have to ask "Why" and be more specific rather than vague because when you're vague you leave the question open to interpretation.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the mystery there are some questions I had in order to solve it:
1. How did the wind not blow the candle out?
2. Why would the robber only take the painting?
3. Why did she wait to call the police?
4. If the painting was her most valuable item why didn't she check on it first?
I took the most away from the Pause portion of the article, many times it is hard for me to stop and just take time to think when there are so many things happening all at once. I'm sure if I took just a moment to stop what i'm doing, think and act upon what I thought about I could do many good things.
ReplyDelete1.) If the wind was so loud, how did she hear someone downstairs
2.) Why didn't she call the police?
3.)Why did she only discover that the painting was gone the next day if it was so valuable?
The entire Forbes article was a very interesting and valuable read, but there was one thing that really stuck with me. I'm a numbers person, so what impacted me the most was the statistics. The fact that asking the right questions could increase the likelihood that one's work will impact someone in a positive way by more than 4 times is amazing to me. As for the case of the insured painting, taking the article's advice and pausing to think of questions to ask is conducive to possibly solving the "robbery". There are 3 big questions that point to something being amiss in this case. Firstly, why did the woman not call the police immediately after she realized that someone was in her house and had taken something? On top of this, if the painting was so valuable to her, why didn't she check on it first (and why would she keep a painting in the basement? Isn't the whole point of buying art for your house to display it, and not to hang it in some dingy corner?) instead of going through the house checking if anything smaller was taken? Finally, and possibly most importantly, why did she compulsively mention that the painting's insurance policy was not as valuable as the painting? That seems suspicious, and the fact that she mentioned that makes it seem as if she was trying to cover up the fact that she was, in fact, trying to commit insurance fraud.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article, I was able to recognize the significance of asking the "right question." It enabled me to reflect on my own experiences, and conclude that, in most situations, I really don't take the time to stop and think, "Is this the right question to ask?" I, and assumably a majority of other kids my age, are often impulsive in our decision-making, and focus more on completing a task in a timely manner rather than stopping and taking the time to think critically. It made me realize that, perhaps in a world where everyone thought this way and produced ideas more effectively, the world might be much more advanced than it currently is. In a world where there are "geniuses" and those who are renown for their innovative thinking, it is wild to imagine a world in which everyone could be considered a "genius," in their own way. There seems to be a lot of potential in our world, which simply is not taken advantage of by everybody.
ReplyDeleteThree Questions:
1. How could she see the man run away if the street lamp was out?
2. How did the strong winds not blow out the candle?
3. If the painting was the most expensive item, why didn't she check it first?
The most interesting thing I found from the article was when the author spoke about pausing when answering a question, that the initial rush of adrenaline needs to be subsided in order to logically answer the question. This immediately directs my mind to practice ACT and SAT tests that always stress me out and the persistence of the fact that there is a questioned that is unanswered and needs to be answered because the time is passing but I've read the question but I don't even know what it is asking. This initial thought process is what lingers over my head for every question. However if I can take a moment to pause and process the question itself I can be far more productive. In fact it said in the article that Einstein would take the first 55 minutes to determine what the question is asking to then answer the question in 5 minutes if his life depended on it!
ReplyDeleteThis case brings up some important questions after reviewing it,
Why did Hilda call Sleuth before the police if it was such a valuable painting, and why didn’t she even consider of calling them until he had mentioned it? (also convenient timing that she called exactly as his alarm went off?)
How the the “howling wind” not blow out her candle when she went to see if anyone was outside, and how would she see someone running off with just a candle?
If the man was running off, wouldn't she see he was holding a painting, and thus not go back to sleep? (since she told Sleuth that she assumed nothing was stolen)
The thing that stuck out most to me in the article was that "what difference would people love?" Most entrepreneurs think of what would make people's lives easier, or even what would make them the most money, but not what would people love. This is actually surprising, as if people love a product, they'll strongly recommend to others consistently, where if a product only made their lives easier, they would maybe recommend it if someone brought it up. If everyone thought "what would people love" when they made a product, the world could have the possibility of being a much happier place.
ReplyDeleteThe first of the three questions would be how could Hilda hear a noise downstairs over the howling wind? The next question would be how could she see the man running if she only had a candle to light her sight? The final question would be why didn't she call the police when there was an obviously sketchy situation occurring. My theory is Hilda hid or sold the painting and claimed it to be stolen in order to commit insurance fraud.
I learned reading this article, that asking the right questions are really important and are key to finding any solution.This Topic of asking the right questions really brings me to a game that utilizes the importance of asking the right questions is "20 Questions" because if they chose something pretty specific then asking the bad questions will leave you clueless.
ReplyDeleteThree questions: Why didn't she call the police?
How did she not see the robber with her painting?
Why would the robber only take that painting?
I found the article interesting with how particular questions could change the impact that they have on certain individuals. I also found it helpful that the article broke down the steps that you should take to ask correct or well said questions in order to create the said impact.
ReplyDeleteThe three questions I had regarding the mystery are,
1. Why didn't she call the police first thing?
2. Why didn't the candle go out if it was so windy?
3. How could she see the robber with a limited amount of light?
What I found most interesting was the power of wording and the power of asking questions. This made me take a step back and realize that no great invention was made without a good question being asked first. Reflecting on the article and applying it to me I realized I should start really analyzing the questions I'm asking and see if they're going to bring me to the proper answers. About the riddle, he knew she was lying because she said the street lamp was out but then saw the man running down the street after the crime. This would have been impossible if the light had been out. I didn't really ask myself 3 questions, I only asked one good one: What part of this story contradicts itself?
ReplyDeleteThe thing that stood out to me the most in the article was how asking the right questions could change so much. The world was massively changed by just one question.
ReplyDeleteThe three questions I would ask are how did you see the man if it was dark, why didn't the wind blow out the candle, and didn't she see the painting when she saw the man.
I have no idea what the solution is.
The Forbes article stood out to me for many different reasons. What struck me the most was sometimes questions that seem incredibly simple are actually the key to understanding certain concepts. Questions as simple as "why" can lead to very in depth answers.
ReplyDeleteThe questions that were raised in my mind were why she called the sleigh before the police, how could she not realize the man had a painting, and how did the candle not blow out if the wind was truly "howling" like she described.
The things that stood out the most to me was the fact that Forbes mentioned that the production of the product has to be what the people would LOVE not just like. This stood out to me the most because in order to make a product you have to make sure the people buying it will purchase more than once. Even asking the right question is so profound very few people know how to generate such product. In the article the author mentions “That question in particular seems to activate a deeply human power of creative energy inside us.” He said that it expands our minds and to change from what “is” to what “could be” and that stood out to me the most because the future is at stake not the present. It’s what could change not what is changing and that’s how I life as well.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting part of the Forbes article to me was the Einstein quote. I have never thought about a situation like that, but now that I have, I have seen a different approach to questioning.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the mystery, there are three main flaws to her story:
1) The "Howling Wind would have put out the Candle"
2) The candle would not produce enough light to see someone running away
3) The man allegedly seen running was not holding the painting.
After reading the article I found the part about the purpose of the product to really stand out. When I was reading this part, I found this especially interesting due to the fact that when producing a product the person should really be what is on the person’s mind (Which should really be the case in many situations, whether it be in speaking or in cooking or in a daily actions/interactions). I thought that this was a good tactic for people to really start implementing n their lives just because there are a lot of people, myself included, that act or speak or do without thinking of others. Though this is a common theme among the blog posts is really important that people do as such.
ReplyDeleteI had a number of questions for the mystery:
Did she not see the robber steal anything?
Why did she not check to see if anything was stolen?
Why did she not go to the police?
How did she hear the wind but not the robber?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSorry here's my answer to the other part of the blog.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to ask the right question is most definitely important. I've had issues in the past with this were I didn't ask a meaningful question so I didn't get the proper answer to help me answer that question. I find the quote about how Einstein would use 55 minutes of his 60 minutes to solve a problem to come up with the proper question to solve the problem and that he would solve it in the last 5 minutes he had. I though this showed the power that asking the right question could have. To think that I have that power is amazing.
The three questions I would ask are:
1) Are there any discrepancies in Hilda's story?
2) Why didn't she call the police first if she was robbed?
3) If someone broke into the house and ran out the front door, then why didn't Hilda mention the door was open or that the howling wind was blowing into the house through the door?
The first thing I notice was that she realized that the street light was out so it was too dark to see. Most people would have just turned on their house light and continued. Also she never mentioned if the door downstairs was left open or not.
The second thing I noticed was the fact she didn't originally call the police. Most people if their house is broken into will call the police first and as soon as they can. Hilda did not and went back to sleep. She then noticed the painting was missing in the morning and called Sleuth instead of the police.
The article resonated with me in the fact that the "right question" can change everything. It made me look back at my own life experiences and determine how things could have possibly would have been different if I would have asked the right questions. Focusing more on making questions worthwhile could ultimately lead to better outcomes when it comes to life decisions.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the mystery, the three questions I would ask are:
1. Why did she wait to call the police?
2. Why didn't she see the robber carrying the painting?
3. Why didn't the wind blow the candle out?
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote, I think stuck out the most. If your life depended on a problem I think most of us would take some time to try and figure it out, but most of us would be asking all the wrong questions. In fact we would probably be so worried about our life on the line we wouldn't even be clearly thinking.
I think some of the most articulate people are the most knowledgeable. They are well read, usually intelligent, and often come up with the best answers to the best questions. But what makes them so great?? I think it is the time they take in order to reflect on the task at hand.
Pause. What a great word! A word for taking a break. A time for reflection. A time that you can take to think long and hard about what you're going to say next.
The biggest thing that I learned is that you don't need a lot of words to come up with the best questions. In fact if you do your research and become knowledgeable then all most of the questions other people have you can already answer,and then you can get to the "good questions"
Some questions for the mystery
1. Is the painting yours? I know it's probably a weird question to ask but if it was so valuable and "money will never replace it, then why have it hidden in the basement? and if there is a reason to have it in the basement why not check there first?
2. Why didn't you immediately call the police? You see a man running down the street (no painting in hand either?) that broke into your home and just go back to bed?? That doesn't make any sense unless you're trying to "frame" someone (eh? eh? see what I did there? no? okay)
3. If it was too dark to see anything how could you have checked for missing things? You first go downstairs and realize "oh oopsy, can't see anything because the light's out" then you come back in and "look things over???" you just said you couldn't see anything! and "nothing 'seemed' to be missing" so you just go back to bed?!
there's a lot of holes in your story missy!
One of the quotes that stood out to me while reading this article stated "The right question can be a disruptive agent, cutting through years of complacency to redirect a team or a company’s focus. It serves as a pointer, aiming us in the direction of the answer". This led me to think about life and how far along we as humans have evolved to create the world we live in today. It is obvious that many of our greatest technological advancements are due in part to people who "asked the right questions" when analyzing their idea. However, it doesn't stop me from thinking, what could have happened had these people never asked the golden question? How far behind would humanity be had we not formulated what consensus believes to be "the right question", we would not be thriving off these advancements.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the puzzle:
1. How was she able to see the thief with the small light from a candle?
2. Why did the candle not blow out in such a windy night?
3. Why did she not call the police?
4. How is she claiming a man went off running with her painting if she did not spot it missing that night?
The article reminds me of the process of finding a good knowledge question for Tok. In Tok we have to make the question higher level with greater implications but also accessible and relate-able to all people. The "think about the people" step really spoke to me. I wish I had read this article back when we started writing TOK questions for class it would have been a great help to learn how to approach developing a question.
ReplyDelete1 Does she know anyone who would want to steal the painting?
How would a stranger know about a valuable painting in the basement and take nothing else?
2 Why not call the police when the incident first happened?
I would not feel safe after finding out someone broke into my house in the middle of the night?
3 How could she not see him run away with the valuable painting in his hands?
I believe that the robbery was a set-up to receive the insurance money.
The sentence that I found most interesting in the article was "The right question can be a disruptive agent, cutting through years of complacency to redirect a team or a company’s focus". It treats questions as a tool to be used, nearly a weapon that can chop through stillness and indecision. That really put me in a different perspective of looking at questions and HOW I ask them.
ReplyDelete1. How was the candle light bright enough to see a man running down the road? Candles don't provide a lot of light and the streetlights were out.
2. Why did she not phone the police first? Instead of some random detective who she does not know.
3.If it was so windy, then why wasn't the candle blown out?