I finally changed my mind about asking follow up questions

I finally changed my mind about asking follow up questions. For years I thought asking a bunch of follow ups in an Ask Anything thread just annoyed people. I figured they answered my first question, so I should be done. But last week I saw a user ask someone three specific follow ups about their DIY solar setup. Things like what brand of battery they used and how cold it got at night. The person answered with a ton of useful details they left out the first time. That made me realize I was missing out on good info by not digging deeper. Now I always ask at least one or two follow ups if something is interesting. Has anyone else held back from asking more and regretted it later?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugow307d ago

Used to think the same way honestly, this changed my mind too.

ellis.victor7d agoTop Commenter

Yeah the numbers really changed things for me too @hugow30. I saw that study from last year where they tracked like 500 people over six months and it showed that over 60 percent of them had totally different views on the same topic after just one solid conversation with someone who disagreed. That was the turning point for me. I used to think people were just stubborn and that was it, but now I realize a lot of it comes down to how you approach the talk. If you come at it like you're trying to understand instead of just win, people actually listen. It's wild how much your own opinion can shift when you stop assuming you're right and just let the other person explain their side.