The Art of Why

Without Why, we're lost. Not asking why is comforting in the short term. Nobody benefits from being bludgeoned with poor choices. But in the long term, we're lost if we can't face the why of the choices we are making. Each of us is a blend of science and art. Science is grounded in observation and theory, hard facts and empirical evidence: share prices and crop reports, cholesterol counts and final scores. That’s essential; we need hard facts and scientific thinking to make sense of the world on a daily basis. Science is about what and how. It doesn't concern itself with meaning. Why is not in the vocabulary of the geneticist or botanist. But we're also artists. We're creatures of intuition and creative vision. Those are not based on empirical facts (you can't quantify the moment when Steve Jobs had the inspiration for the iPhone), but they are no less important than the what and how of science. The key is that expressing our artistic selves means that we must have the courage to ask the question why: - Why does this technology not work as well as it should? - Why must I purchase things because my friends have them? - Why have I put on 40 pounds in the last ten years? - Why am I unhappy?