Why do we ask stupid questions?

Why do we ask stupid questions?

There is no such thing as a stupid question but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots. This applies to people who initiate questions by themselves. See the cartoon below. “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubts.”  This refers to people who reply when they are faced with questions. I am sharing a problem in communication and stupid questions here.

Many times my daughter accuses me of asking stupid questions.  They are not always meant to be so nor said with that intention. It is the result of a racing mind filled with sixty interpretations of half a sentence actually heard. I am gifted to be partially deaf – I hear only first half or the second half and try to make out the other half: first half, if she is nearby and second half, if she is far away say in another room. And the result is my blurting out something that is seemingly coming out a stupid unthinking idiot. Many times this happens when I deeply engrossed with some work and the other person takes me by surprise / shock by suddenly talking from nowhere. So my daughter makes special efforts to draw my attention and then only say the actual words meant to be communicated without any transmission loss.

How not to reply impulsively, is my problem. If I become attentive or pose so, the other person becomes nervous or annoyed – why such a drama during ordinary conversation, she asks.  For instance, when my younger daughter rings me up and I pick and say: Hi, What’s the news?, she gets annoyed. What could possibly go wrong in just about twelve hours, she thinks.

 Is the behaviour due to indifference, anxiety to say something and get off, inability to comprehend what is said quickly? Is it hearing problem? Being immersed in work almost akin to deep sleep? In this post I have dealt with only replying to posers. Not initiating stupid questions myself. That requires more unthinking on our part.Do you have a practical solution to swap?

My First Attempt to create a video - SCF Forum Song

My First Attempt to create a Video

My nephew, Hemanth, once told me that he has signed up for some self-improvement course. On certain days he is unable to attend the class in person he simply witnesses the entire lecture that he missed on youtube. His teacher uses Google Hangout for this, I learnt. Ever since then I had been toying with using Google Hangout for senior citizens group activities like interviews, common chatting, bringing up nostalgic recollection, recorded oral histories etc.There were certain problems including finding a few net savvy elders who can take part in experiments.

Just the other day, some six of us completed a successful Google Hangout Video session. Sri G Balasubramanian. Sri Subramanian, Prof V Ramamurti, Justice TNC Rangarajan and his wife Ms Kamala joined me. We spoke for about 45 minutes about "First or Oldest movie seen". It was very enjoyable exchange of personal happy moments - sort of re-living the past you might say. Though I thought that the session would have been recorded as a video, it was not, much to my dismay.

Digging through help files I found out the "how" of it better. The result is a very short test video showing me reading out the SCF Forum Song. It is shared here as embedded video. Please tell me how this facility may be used for our advantage.