What is an Opening/Insightful Question you can ask anyone?

[nelsonic]

If you don't yet appreciate the effectiveness of the Socratic Method: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method I would highly encourage you to read "_Leading with Questions_" by Michael J. Marquardt -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leading-Questions-Leaders-Solutions-Knowing/dp/1118658132

What One Question can you ask any person that will tell you the most about them?

I think I've found one (it's certainly not the only one, but I think it's quite good ... and want to share it so we can discuss/debate/evolve more/better questions!)

Do you own a knife sharpener?

Why? That is the subject of essay... But I'll give you the "short" version:

Assumptions and Follow Up Questions

• Most people eat solid food. (if the person you are asking prefers a liquid e.g. juice/smoothie/soup diet for any reason that is also insightful, but will require at least one further question.)
• Most people have access to a kitchen where they can prepare food. (_if they don't have access to a working/useable kitchen their living situation is not ideal and they can give that as their reason for not preparing food).
• Most people prepare their own food at least some of the time. (if they only eat "ready meals" and takeaways that tells you a lot about them, but is not conclusive you need to ask another question: so what do you eat most of the time? because they may have access to a healthy-home-cooking service which costs less cash than the value of their time to cook and they prefer to have other hobbies. In which case you can ask about their other hobbies. _OR_ they may just live at their parent's house and still be lucky enough to dine Mom's Cuisine every night _OR_ live with a partner who loves cooking and as a result they never do any of the food prep, but that's insightful too because you can determine if they don't like preparing food - insightful about their personality - or are just enjoying a "free lunch" while it's available but they know how to cook you can ask them what their favourite thing to make "from scratch" is...)
• Most people use a kitchen knife to prepare food. (if they only make meals with prepared ingredients e.g. frozen/pre-chopped veg, that tells you about their value of time... you can ask them about what they do with their time).

Potential Insight

If the person prepares their own food and they use a kitchen knife then they should know that knives do not stay sharp for ever. Hence requiring a knife sharpener. If the person does not own one, you have an insight into how they think.

Someone who does not sharpen the knife they use (to prepare their food) ends up using a blunt knife. Do they just throw away the "blunt" knife because it no longer "work", or is someone else magically sharpening the knife for them...?

In Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People

The final habit is "sharpen the saw" is about Continuous Improvements

A person who do not continuously improve the sharpness of their knife (the main "tool" in the kitchen) will not be the type of person I want to work with.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree
and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” ~ Abraham Lincoln attributed

[nelsonic]

What question can we ask to discover if a person has engaged in "deliberate practice" in any pursuit? e.g: playing an instrument, learning a craft/skill or playing a sport.
And is this an indicator of future success?

[nelsonic]

I recently thought of a similarly insightful question which requires people to think:

If you could Change Any One Law (or Rule) what would it be?

As usual, I have carefully considered my answer to this question.
Although when I posed it to my Mum (@carolrmc) a much better Law-change was suggested...!

[nelsonic]

What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
~ Peter Thiel

in "Zero to One" PDF: http://gsl.mit.edu/media/programs/south-africa-summer-2015/materials/0to1.pdf

[nelsonic]

Dark Motives and Elective Use of Brainteaser Interview Questions:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/apps.12163

[nelsonic]

Interesting questions: https://patrickcollison.com/questions
(good topics to research and have facts/stats so you can discuss and formulate further questions!)
Comments are also pretty insightful: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18105129

[nelsonic]

When was the time you showed the most patience? ⏳

Understanding someone's propensity for delayed gratification.
see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

[nelsonic]

When did you experience an apparent “failure” that lead to later & greater success?