How to Fall in Love with Questions

“In a world stupefied by quick fixes and easy answers, Elizabeth Weingarten delivers a smart and urgent wake-up call. She shows why curiosity beats certainty—and why doubt is often the prelude to discovery. Her insights will inspire you to relish ambiguity, reject certitude, and revel in the magic of questions.” — Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret, Drive, and When”Most people waste a great deal of time and energy trying to eliminate uncertainty. This book illuminates how we can learn to live with it. It’s an interesting, insightful, and surprisingly reassuring read.” — Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and Hidden Potential and host of the podcast Re:Thinking”At this moment of high anxiety and uncertainty about the future and just about everything else, Elizabeth Weingarten’s captivating and timely book shows that the hopeful way out is through not only asking the right questions but learning to patiently sit with them rather than grasp for easy answers. Using her own intensely personal story and that of the soulful poet Rainer Maria Rilke as touch points, Weingarten takes readers on a fascinating journey through history, philosophy, and science to discover that falling in love with the big questions and embracing uncertainty can lead to greater clarity and richer lives.” — Brigid Schulte, New York Times-bestselling author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time”A brave, powerful and insightful book that wonderfully combines personal narrative, the stories of others and scientific research into a celebration of the value of continuing to find and ask questions. The surest sign that something is wrong in your life is if you’ve run out of questions.” — Barry Schwartz, visiting professor at Hass School of Business, U.C. Berkeley, and author of The Paradox of Choice and Practical Wisdom”Weingarten’s surprising research and deeply personal look at her own journey reminds us to embrace the question itself. How to Fall in Love With Questions maps, with superb frameworks, how to focus on the essence of our inquiries and tricks to invert our questions to get to the core. This must-read is not a ‘how to’ or ‘self help’ book—but one that, in her words, guides us to another way to be in the world.” — Christopher M. Schroeder, global venture investor and chairman of the German Marshall Fund

Elizabeth Weingarten is a journalist and applied behavioral scientist who works at the intersection of science and storytelling. She has worked on the editorial staffs of The Atlantic, Slate, and Qatar Today, and was Managing Editor of Behavioral Scientist. Her writing has appeared in publications including The Atlantic, Slate, CNN, The Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, and Time. She has led research programs at the think tank New America, the consultancy ideas42, and at tech companies Torch and Udemy. She lives in Northern California with her husband and son.