Conversation

Often when I have a problem I need to process, I talk about it and people offer me advice. The problem is that advice is rarely new information, and what I really need is to learn about myself through being asked questions that the problem makes me blind to.

Aella

@Aella_Girl

It's like I'm an archaeologist trying to dig up a fossil and instead of suggesting a new spot to dig, they just throw other fossils at me

12:00 AM · May 6, 2018

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So you're looking for advice in the form of the Socratic method?

@gabbymcnabb@spore.social

@GabbyMcNabb

May 6, 2018

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@Aella_Girl

Unfortunately common. Folks tend to leap to advice giving or the solution space. We instead need accomplices in developing a deeper relationship to the issue or concept.

The.Multi-Chain.Future

@brendantcooper

May 6, 2018

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@Aella_Girl

This is my experience as well. Thanks for articulating it. I think it means I will start asking for help 'exploring the problem space.'

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more helpful to examine and record (for future) their thought process behind arriving at this fossil, given your problem statement. May not solve your current problem, but the next time you're thinking about a similar problem, you have different ways to think about it.

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"do you want me to have my listening ears on, or my solution ears?" gets me out of trouble some times. Sounds like you want listening with some probing questions.

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Fossils are paleontology's domain. Archaeologists don't get to record fossils, as they're only after evidence of human activity. The perk is that archaeologists get to keep any fossils they unearth, whilst contextualising endless bits of pottery and animal bone.