Oct 27, 2022

💭 To question, or not to question, that is the question

Questioning the questioning.

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

In this issue

💭 To question, or not to question, that is the question.
🔔 Telegram channel launch.
🗂️ Last week's updates.

Hello friends,

As far as I can recall, I've always been a "critical thinker".

In my teens, I clearly remember having the desire to argue with teachers (in a polite manner) about some things they were saying, that I was questioning. More often than not, it was good questioning (in my opinion 😆).

Later in life, I started noticing more of my rebellious nature. Mainly, it was manifesting itself in the form of a strong desire to reject things that are too popular or trendy. I don't know what it is, but my inner drive to go against the grain is strong 🔋.

However, critical thinking can go too far.

Issue 1

At work, I've noticed that I often question things that might be let go.

Here is an example. I remember working on one innovation project. We had access to existing user research that was relevant, but we had only summarized insights. It had been done some time ago and my critical mind started questioning if its conclusions were still valid.

I pushed enough to do another research study. This extended our project timeline by 3 weeks and revealed no new insights 🤦‍♂️ That older research was still usable.

This is a known shortcoming I have, and I always try to keep this natural tendency in check.

Issue 2

Another challenge is when you start questioning yourself too much 🙊

I think it is healthy to have this general mindset - keeps you humble and open to the fact that other ideas might be better, etc. But constant questioning may get you to doubt your own skills and abilities, which might become detrimental.

Conclusion

Critical thinking is good and may help uncover incorrect assumptions. But you can't question everything forever, as you'll get stuck in analysis paralysis, trying to validate and confirm every single thing. It's a tricky problem that requires having a balanced approach and more practice with prioritization of risks and assumptions.

In many cases, you just have to let it go and move on to the next step 🧘

🔔 Telegram channel

I am setting up a telegram channel that will notify of the new postings on the website as soon as they get published instead of waiting till the weekly newsletter. Will also be sharing quick thoughts and observations about UX fails and similar things. Also, considering answering your questions there.

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