leadership dot #2139: search

My sister was just unexpectedly in the hospital and I found myself continually looking at my phone as it could give me minute-to-minute updates like it does for a sporting event. Even if there were no changes in her condition, I would have had more comfort in knowing that as opposed to being in the dark. It made me realize that I have come to expect that my “magic phone” (as I dubbed it when I first got a smartphone) knows everything.

I want to reach for my phone all the time to ask questions which have answers, but are unknown by Google: “how many people are at this event,” “who is that person I know from somewhere but can’t place,” “what size shirt does my brother wear,” or “when do the eggs in the refrigerator expire?” [It can be a fun icebreaker to ask people to share a question that has an answer that Google does not know.]

But I also sometimes wish that I could look up answers to questions to which there are no answers, important questions like: “should I pursue this line of work or that one”, “what is the best course of action to complete this project” or “what investment plan is the most beneficial to pursue?” These are things I do not know, and the phone cannot help me.

There are so many questions to which the phone has no answers. Maybe those are the big questions we should spend our time asking.