60 Second Wisdom: 10 Questions You Should Never Ask Anyone

“I learned very early about questions nobody should ever ask anybody. When I was a child, it seemed once a week someone would ask my mother, what do you do all day? Because she didn’t work outside the home, even though they knew she was raising eight boys. The questions we ask tend to quickly reveal how smart we are or how lacking we are in emotional intelligence.

Here are 10 questions to delete permanently from your vocabulary:

1. Are you on a diet?
2. Is that your real job?
3. Why don’t you have children?
4. Have you gained weight?
5. Don’t you feel embarrassed about doing that?
6. Why didn’t you invite me?
7. Are you really going to wear that?
8. What are you so angry about?
9. Why are you still single?
10. Do you know how many calories are in that?

The quality of a relationship can be measured by the quality of the questions that pass between two people. By asking people questions, we gain unique insight into who they are, what matters to them, and what they know more about than anything else in the world. Every person is fascinating when asked the right questions. Don’t waste your questions.”