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Questions are the important thing, answers are less important. Learning to ask a good question is the heart of intelligence. Learning the answer-well, answers are for students. Questions are for thinkers.
Roger Schank
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Asking the right questions is key to intelligence and critical thinking.

This quote emphasizes the importance of questioning over simply finding answers. It suggests that the ability to formulate insightful questions is what drives deeper understanding and intelligence, while answers tend to be more superficial, appealing to rote learning rather than thoughtful exploration.

Themes

QuestionsIntelligenceLearningThinkingEducation

In practice

Example use cases

In a classroom discussion about critical thinking, this quote can inspire students to focus on crafting good questions.

More from Roger Schank

Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.
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