Curiosity is how meaning gets in. Ask more questions than you think you’re allowed.

Most people under-ask by a wide margin, mostly from a fear of looking slow or intrusive. The result is a life full of half-understood things sitting right next to people who would have explained them gladly. Questions are also how anything stops being flat: you cannot find a subject interesting until you have poked at it. Interest is produced, not discovered.

Ask one more question than feels comfortable in each conversation this week. In class, at work, with a relative. The worst case is a short answer, and the usual case is that someone is pleased you asked.