Main5 min
A guess you can check
The idea. A question with no number in it has no answer you can check — only opinions about it.
- 1
“Is this a good paper airplane?” You cannot check that. Two people can disagree forever.
- 2
“Does this paper airplane fly further than that one, thrown from the same spot?” You can check that. You need a tape measure and about four minutes.
- 3
The second question is not a better opinion. It is a different kind of question — one the world can answer instead of you.
- 4
The move: find the number hiding inside the question. Good → how far. Strong → how much weight. Fast → how many seconds.
- 5
Some questions have no number in them at all. Those are real questions too — they just cannot be settled this way, and pretending otherwise is its own mistake.
Question 1 · Multi-select
Which of these can you check today, at home?
Question 2 · Ordering
Put these in order, from easiest to check to hardest: how long my hand is · how far my plane flies · how far a plane could fly if I got much better at throwing.
Question 3 · Free choice + reason
Rewrite this so it has a number in it: “Is this a strong bridge?”
Question 4 · Transfer
Someone says “this is the best chair.” What would you ask them?
For the parent — Parent note
What we taught. Find the number hiding inside a vague question.
Why this one matters most. This is the whole product in one session. A child who can do this can tell when an answer — from anyone, including a machine — is answering a different question from the one asked.
What to listen for. Whether they notice that “which looks cooler” is not a broken question, just a different kind.
A phrase worth borrowing at home. “What’s the number in that?”