The unknown is the scariest part of architecture. Things will arise later and derail the momentum of the project if the question is not asked now. Assumptions you made will spring up and try to correct themselves.

Those are the things that are scary to me. What questions did I forget to ask? What did I miss? I want as little of those surprises as possible.

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A post shared by Marc Sawyer (@wwsarchitecture) on Jan 5, 2020 at 3:00am PST

We don’t want to be too pushy right. Ask too many questions. Be annoying or make it look like we don’t have all the answers.

You start to kind of guess on some things. You’ve already asked so many questions. But don’t do it. Don’t guess or make assumptions. Ask the question and get the real answer. The real answer.

It’s a challenge to get the real answer. This is what makes it so difficult. People have not explored their own issues very much. They might think that something on the surface is the issue, when in reality it’s something greater.

You have to dig deep if you want to get to the root of the issue. As Sean McCabe would say, “You keep asking why until the answer stops changing.”

Meaning one answer leads to a deeper question. When you explore further you get real answers. Eventually the answer they give doesn’t change. Have you gone through this before with someone?

You ask a question and they give you some superficial answer. It doesn’t relate to what you were asking. So maybe you move on or maybe you press in a bit. Ask in a different way. You might get a different answer or expanded information from before.

Then you dig deeper. The response goes even deeper to the root of the problem. What’s the problem behind the problem. That’s the real issue.

You have to correct that issue before you can began to repair this problem. Get to the point.

You want to get to the thing that creates the largest change. The snowball at the top of the hill. You should be forming your snowball at the top of the hill. You will create momentum in the right direction.

Ask deeper questions. Then ask again. And again. Eventually the answer will stop changing.