The Art of Powerful Questions | Allen Saakyan | TEDxSanFrancisco

[Music] how many of you guys know who I am or have seen a video with me before okay not bad like 99% of you have no idea who I am great great a common theme between the speakers that are taking the stage today is that we are looking to break through in order to break through we need attention we need followers breaking through is really important breaking through means that our idea is spreading from an individual to the community and then to the world the world has seven and a half billion people right now each one of those people has about 16 waking hours of attention every single day that means there's a hundred and twenty billion waking hours of human attention every single day collectively on this planet attention is the most valuable commodity this is why media companies have been at a war for our attention over the last decade and right now I'm with you you're with me we're giving each other our attention and TEDx has given us speakers a platform to aim to disseminate our ideas to you and us curious intellectuals are here today learning it's really important that we embody asking questions this is a technology this is a science this is an art this is a tool this is a muscle that needs to be trained the attention cake is limited to those hundred and twenty billion hours and we're all trying to get more and more of the cake so if we can figure out how to shatter through surface level conversation and get to the depths of the soul we can amplify our ability to break through so I interview people four years ago I left the comfortability of a nine-to-five job so that I could ask random people on the streets thought-provoking questions if you had the opportunity to spread one message to the world what would it be just be good to each other for crying out loud be good to animals be good to people appreciate what we have share what we have with people that don't have enough and we would get wisdoms like this practice sharing what we have with people who don't have enough now today we've have interviewed - we've interviewed 200 people in the last nine months different diverse global leaders on our show and we're able to give really powerful wisdoms from them about the future of humanity and solving some of our most pressing challenges there is no nobler purpose for technology than to bring peace to the mind of mankind but it's not just via robot so you can put a gun on a drone we're getting some confidence in blockchain security which is exciting quantum programming is kind of like a whole other branch when you do humanize other people you do humanize yourself a lot of stuff happening in these cells they're actually manufacturing thousands of different proteins a common thread between them is similarly we're trying to break through trying to get just one more follower entrepreneurship is one of the most meaningful journeys that we'll go through in our lives but it's also one of the most stressful and so we go through a process of sacrificing absolutely everything scrapping with money being completely unstable just so that we can actualize a vision into the world when I see football stadiums or sports stadiums filled with 50,000 people watching a sporting event or music event I realized that 90% of the time those stadiums are unused that's why my vision is to fill those sports stadiums with curious intellectuals thousands of them for full day multidisciplinary events fight thought-provoking fireside chats debates comedy skits group meditations and actualizing that vision takes really hard work in time and in order to get there I've learned that cutting through surface level conversation with powerful questions is really important in that journey of getting more attention getting more followers I am absolutely obsessed with powerful questions so take a look at some of these real quick these are some of my favorite ones I love asking people what is time what is consciousness what is courage who's gonna teach a ifx what do we do about wealth and equality how do we modernize politics these are just some of the really powerful questions and there's a really good metaphor for powerful questions metaphor is a submarine and when we're chilling at the surface level the water pressure is weak it's easy for us to be like how are you the weather is nice out isn't it yeah so these sort of like mundane sort of conversations when we go a little deeper and we ask questions maybe like what are you passionate about we get into the depths we're getting there it's getting a little bit more uncomfortable it's getting harder and harder for us to deal with the water pressure but at the same time we're gaining more and more insight and then when we get to the deepest steps of the human psyche and the soul we ask questions like what are your core values and questions like that again it's a really deep and dark and scary down there but it actualizes us the most it gives us the greatest understanding of the human soul questions enable us to probe reality I want to talk about the art and strategy of getting to become a really good question asker some of these important pillars emotional intelligence this is being warm this is being kind this is giving really good eye contact giving that true love and care even though someone's opinion may contradict yours this is also this is a silencing after you ask someone a question being calm giving them that space next is syntax syntax is really important because you can bias people's questions you can ask them did you have fun at TEDx or you can ask them how was TEDx one biases them towards fun the other one will give you generic response but if you ask them what did you find most valuable at Ted you'll likely elicit a pretty interesting response but again biased towards value this is probably one of the most important ones that is permeating through society incredibly fast right now the binary trap people are either black or white on so many issues but so much of what we see is not black and white cognitive ease and tribalism and echo-chamber separate us this way but really we see things as a spectrum our perception is multivariate it's nuanced and we stay calm and curious in a quantum Ahsan having conversations with people take an example like immigration most people are pro or against immigration but if you find the multi variability the nuance you can find a cool position like being as oenophile pragmatist that means that you love foreign cultures but that you want to be pragmatic at the borders steel versus straw Manning when you when you straw man someone it means that you take their argument and you make it as you misrepresent her to make it as easy to defeat as possible when you steal man someone's argument it means that you make their argument even better this way you show them that you actually care about what they're saying and if you disagree then it makes it potentially easier for you to augment their perspective lastly getting to their heart I love asking deep questions like what's the deepest emotion you've ever felt or what's the most beautiful thing in the world or how do you maximize your potential reciprocation is a crucial process in this analyzed really carefully and closely if the other person is truly reciprocating and also if you're reciprocating back by asking questions breaking through requires powerful questions it's so important because that's how we get attention that's how we get more followers we ask these powerful questions and we get to our breakthrough you're all about to go out for a break ask a challenging question to someone else that you're talking to get used to asking challenging questions work out this muscle of questions with your family with your friends on social media with your coworker get into a habit of becoming a powerful question asker and ask yourself these questions look in the mirror and ask them to yourself as you scan the depths of the human psyche and you analyze and you get really good at it we'll also gain a bird's eye perspective as a blimp we'll be able to see the terrain see the evolution of humanity see how humans connect how we communicate the deepest emotions and feelings and energies that exist out there ask powerful questions and get to your breakthrough thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 27,232

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Humanities, Change, Communication, Creativity, Ideas, Life Development, Life Hack

Id: PmqGe8DtWgI

Length: 10min 29sec (629 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 07 2018