How to Fall in Love with Questions - by Elizabeth Weingarten (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Journalist and applied behavioral scientist Elizabeth Weingarten charts a new path to embrace the questions of our lives instead of seeking fast, easy answers.

What do you do when faced with a big, important question that keeps you up at night? Many people, understandably, seize answers dispensed by "experts," influencers, gurus, and more. But these fast, easy, one-size-fits-all solutions often fail to satisfy, and can even cause more pain.

What if our questions--the ones we ask about relationships, work, meaning, identity, and purpose--are not our tormentors, but our teachers? Inspired by 150-year-old advice from Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke and backed by contemporary science, Elizabeth Weingarten offers a fresh approach for dealing with these seemingly unsolvable questions. In her quest, Weingarten shares her own journey and the stories of many others, whose lives have transformed through a different, and better, relationship with uncertainty.

Designed to inspire anyone who feels stuck, powerless, and drained, How to Fall in Love with Questions challenges us to unlock our minds and embark on the kind of self-discovery that's only possible when we feel most alive--that is, when we don't know what will happen next.

Review Quotes

"In a world stupefied by quick fixes and easy answers, Elizabeth Weingarten delivers a smart and urgent wake-up call. She shows why curiosity beats certainty--and why doubt is often the prelude to discovery. Her insights will inspire you to relish ambiguity, reject certitude, and revel in the magic of questions." -- Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret, Drive, and When

"Most people waste a great deal of time and energy trying to eliminate uncertainty. This book illuminates how we can learn to live with it. It's an interesting, insightful, and surprisingly reassuring read." -- Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and Hidden Potential and host of the podcast Re: Thinking

"At this moment of high anxiety and uncertainty about the future and just about everything else, Elizabeth Weingarten's captivating and timely book shows that the hopeful way out is through not only asking the right questions but learning to patiently sit with them rather than grasp for easy answers. Using her own intensely personal story and that of the soulful poet Rainer Maria Rilke as touch points, Weingarten takes readers on a fascinating journey through history, philosophy, and science to discover that falling in love with the big questions and embracing uncertainty can lead to greater clarity and richer lives." -- Brigid Schulte, New York Times-bestselling author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time

"A brave, powerful and insightful book that wonderfully combines personal narrative, the stories of others and scientific research into a celebration of the value of continuing to find and ask questions. The surest sign that something is wrong in your life is if you've run out of questions." -- Barry Schwartz, visiting professor at Hass School of Business, U.C. Berkeley, and author of The Paradox of Choice and Practical Wisdom

"Weingarten's surprising research and deeply personal look at her own journey reminds us to embrace the question itself. How to Fall in Love With Questions maps, with superb frameworks, how to focus on the essence of our inquiries and tricks to invert our questions to get to the core. This must-read is not a 'how to' or 'self help' book--but one that, in her words, guides us to another way to be in the world." -- Christopher M. Schroeder, global venture investor and chairman of the German Marshall Fund