It has been long ignored in Chinese education that the capability to ask questions is indeed more important than to memorize equations or essays. Thus many people can’t ask questions or especially intelligent ones.
It is, however, more and more important to realize the significance of such seemingly useless and thus highly overlooked mental activity. The importance lies in several aspects. The ones that can be immediately realized is that a what question can help people define things so that we can classify it as a known and a how question can render us the methods to implement real stuff and thus provide immediate values.
The value of why questions is not apparent. And in fact, a why question cannot always lead to real benefits. One of the most commonly heard phrase from parents, teachers and friends may be don’t ask why, just do it. But the why questions are actually the ones that an intelligent person should always ask because they connect what is considered known and unknown. They are the keys to what is the unknown and how it connects with all the knowns. But instead of asking others, it may be more benefitial to ask more to yourself and try to connect everything together by yourself. Because some why questions cannot be asked, and some cannot be answered.
Rui & Photonics 