The idea of fairness when it comes to questions and answers
Fairness, like all things, means different things to different people. This post is about fairness when it comes to questions and answers.
What is fairness in conversation anyway
Fairness in questions and answers, to me, means that after the conversation happens, all involved feel like things happened as best they could. In this sense, what happened was “fair.” So for me, fairness with questions and answers means the questions were fairly asked and the answers were fairly offered in return.
Questions and answers deserve to be in relationship with one another
A key element of fairness when it comes to questions and answers is that they exist in relationship to one another. When they do not, miscommunication and misunderstanding result. Those often lead to a sense of unfairness.
Asking an unfair question is uncool
Often questions and answers go separate ways when the question starts out unfairly. The problem is, often the questioner does not know what is fair or not until the boundaries of what is fair have been established. This is why familiarity with people over time builds trust and a willingness to offer answers.
Not answering a fair question is uncool
At the same time, if the question is fair, there are few reasons not to answer it. Mind you, a perfectly fair answer is, “I don’t know,” or, “Let me think about that.” What tends to not be fair is the complete lack of an answer, or, an answer that no longer has any relationship to the question asked.
A little more fairness in our daily conversations might help a whole lot.