 I've always wanted to know how people think. I think it's not just to understand how things work, but I want to know how people think and why they think certain things. I ask, I would say, some people would call them stupid questions like, why would you ask that? And my answer is, I don't know. I'd say it is part of, you know, just how I think. I remember being in a small group and someone had asked a question and then at some point I said, oh wait, what was the question, what was the question again? And one of the group leaders actually said, why does it matter what the question is? You know, we're sort of, you know, we're beyond that. And I was just taken aback and I thought, the questions have the answer. You know, I remember one person said sometimes, you know, I have a strategy. When I don't know things I ask questions and I was taken aback by that. I thought, well, interesting because even when I know things I ask questions. So it's, there's always something to learn, to understand better. And so asking questions, you know, I mean, as teachers, whether you find asking questions natural or not, we ask students questions, you know, homework, exams in class. And in that sense, there is no end to trying to understand something. What I find most interesting is asking people questions and asking them why. You know, that perhaps is the most important question of all. Why this? Why that? Why do I think that? Why do I ask questions? And it's partly part of who I am, but also it's, I think, in the classes I teach which tend to focus on legal questions and legal issues. First I want to know what students think, but secondly I want to know why they think that and asking questions is a way to understand, I guess, arguments which that is something I realized after teaching 15, 16 years that I think what I was really trying to get students to think about is why they believe certain things or why they hold to certain positions. And sometimes we realize that we believe things not because of any particular reason, but that's just what we believe. And I think that's an important thing to realize as well, that when we ask ourselves why we believe or think something, the answer may be we have no idea. And that's an important thing to understand, that we may not have good reasons for believing what we do, and yet we may feel very strongly that such and such thing is right or such and such thing is wrong. I think that's one thing I do try to get students to get to that point. We like to think we have reasons, good reasons to believe what we do, but in many cases we don't. But that doesn't mean that therefore we shouldn't believe it, it just means that we have to be aware that we may not have good reasons for believing something or we may and we want to try to see what they are. I think like in particular law, the field of law, which is based so much on arguments, this is something that gets drilled into you in law school, right? Everything you say needs to have an argument, either that or they call it authority, right? Either you cite a source, and so the argument is we should believe that source, right? That's the implicit argument, or you come up with an argument and you try to persuade other people that your argument is good. And so it does important, and I tell students I'm not swayed by pity or passion, right? If people say something very enthusiastically. I'm swayed by arguments, by persuasion, and if students present a good argument, even if I don't necessarily agree with it, right? I don't have to, a good argument, you know, good arguments aren't just those that you happen to agree with. You can think a good argument, but you disagree with it. I tend to give students credit for that. And so coming up with arguments is important as an intellectual exercise so that we, you know, we understand what are the reasons why we believe certain things, as well as what are the reasons why other people believe certain things. And just because we disagree with an argument doesn't mean that it's not, it's not valid. Again, there could be different reasons why we disagree with an argument, right? I don't want to believe that for whatever reason, you know? Or I said, students say that, oh, I can't believe that, because if I do, then I won't be able to hold to this position. And that's what I call a true confession. It's rare coming from students, but occasionally students will actually say that, I can't go there because I don't want to think that. It's good to understand where we're coming from. I think that is, for me, it's the most fascinating question, right? Why? I mean, what is also very important? You need to know what's going on, but why is that? And I was telling someone recently, especially in the field of law, you know, when we're talking about arguments and reasons to argue for one position or another, you know, very often students, as well as my colleagues, right, they'll say, well, that's the law. The law says that. And of course, the question is, well, why does the law say that? I mean, law changes. We change law consciously, deliberately, so for me, as someone who teaches law, it may seem ironic. I said, the law does not persuade me. But because the law says that, it says, well, we change the law. And so the question is not so much, well, what does the law say, but why does the law say that? And is that a good reason? There is a lot of self-doubt and self-questioning that comes into my class. I try to teach students to question themselves. I want to, I say this, this is one of my lines. I haven't heard it before, but I want to have a bumper sticker that says, you don't have to believe everything you think. In fact, it may be a good idea not to believe everything that you think. And yet, we know that we believe them. And it's important to wonder. But people who ask themselves why they think the way they do are not the ones who tend to create civilizations or to build skyscrapers or manage, be the CEO of a major corporation. Yeah. On some level, they do. But yeah, if you ask too many questions, as Socrates illustrates, right, you get killed. You get killed. You know, I can't imagine any field of human thinking or endeavor where asking questions is important. I mean, even in sciences, I would imagine, you know, we all have a number of colleagues and I have many colleagues in the sciences. And they would say, oh yeah, science is not about finding answers. Well, I mean, it's, it's, perhaps they won't say that, but it's, it's about asking questions, right? It was the curiosity that, that stirred them to go into science because there's so much that they don't know. And I think they would agree that, that science is all about asking questions. And in, in fact, I think the fundamental point of the scientific method is I don't know if I'm taking it too strongly, but you know, there's never a settled question.