Sometimes, I ask people questions and don’t want comprehensive, well-considered answers.

I want a quick answer that involves them:

  • saying something like “don’t know”, “not sure”, “🤷‍♂️”, “sorry”, “I don’t have a fast answer”, without feeling the need to apologise or explain further; or

  • a short, specific answer that is either a specific answer, or an informed gut response (depending on the question).

Sometimes, all I want to know is if they have an answer – for example, “the keys are in so-and-so’s bag”, “x and y were also part of that conversation”, or “that story was from z book”.

Other times, all I want is someone’s gut feeling about something. I know that their gut feeling might not be right. All I want is their initial reaction as a data point, and I’m not going to hold them to it.

When I ask these types of questions, I don’t want to create an obligation for them to spend lots of time and reflect. If they can give a short, quick, substantive answer, that’s great! If they can’t, and let me know, that’s also great! (And in most cases, that’s my expectation.)

Very often, when I ask a “quick question” like this, it ends up resulting in a not-so-quick response. People try to be too helpful. They end up spending more of their time on the question than I was hoping – for their own sake, and sometimes, my own.

(Quite often, the default response is one or more vague suggestions, or breadcrumbs that I’ve already followed. When I ask these questions, I’m not usually asking for advice – I only want a fast answer, or to be told they don’t have one.)

If I’ve directed you to this article, it means you’re the sort of person I’d like to ask more of these questions of! Going forward, if I ask you a “Quick question⚡” you have a more concrete idea of what I’m looking for – and hopefully, feel less of a burden in terms of how to respond.

Thanks!!

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