Stupid Questions Really Do Exist

Dur­ing a recent class where the instruc­tors kept insist­ing, “The only stu­pid ques­tion, is the one that’s not asked,” I dis­cov­ered that this maxim sim­ply isn’t true. There were plenty of stu­pid questions.

Don’t get me wrong, learn­ers should cer­tainly work to under­stand that which they don’t know, but at some point, espe­cially in a group set­ting, one person’s agenda can cost oth­ers greatly in pro­duc­tiv­ity. We need to encour­age par­tic­i­pants to use bet­ter fil­ters to deter­mine whether to ask a par­tic­u­lar ques­tion, and if so, if the tim­ing is right.

This expe­ri­ence has com­pelled me to com­mence a quest to define what makes a ques­tion stu­pid. Below is my first draft of poten­tial root causes.

What do you think? What makes a ques­tion stu­pid to you? What should be added to the list?