Recently at work, I was in a meeting where a junior colleague asked “why not?” to doing something that, at first glance, seemed sensible and achievable with not a lot of effort. This prompted a senior colleague to reply “I’m not a fan of ‘why not’s, I’m more of a fan of ‘whys’”.

I’m not sure why, but this flipped a switch in me. I’m no longer asking “why not?” to seemingly-sensible, quick requests I’m asked; I instead ask “why?” and try my best to find reasons for and against.

I see that this can result in one of two things: either I come up with a good reason as to “why”, and so I do the thing I was asked, but with added understanding of why I am doing it; or I can’t come up with a good reason to do it, in which case I just don’t do it!

Tags: #Engineering