The trick question

Useful modern education is not the work of rote. When you tell someone the answer and then give them a test to see if they remember what you told them, that’s not education, it’s incented memorization.

On the other hand, if you can ask someone a question that causes them to think about something unexamined, that challenges them to explore new ways of seeing the world or making connections, you’ve actually caused a change to happen.

The second time you ask them that question, it won’t work as well. Now it’s just rote. That’s why people call it a trick question. Because they learned something. They learned the trick.

We need more trick questions.