My friend Dirk asked Claude [the AI] “What would I ask if I had enough sense to ask?” (This was a takeoff on my old way of beginning a sessions with the guys, when i didn’t have any idea what we should talk about.) Claude’s response interested me enough that I asked Dirk if I could repeat it here, which he said I could.
Claude:
“That’s a fascinating meta-question about what you might ask if you had the awareness to do so. Given your preferences as a data-driven researcher with a scientific mindset, here are some questions you might find worth exploring:
- What are the fundamental assumptions I’m making in my current research that I haven’t properly examined?
- Which cognitive biases might be affecting my analysis despite my training and expertise?
- What emerging cross-disciplinary methods from fields adjacent to mine could provide breakthrough insights for my work?
- What would be the most efficient way to test multiple competing hypotheses simultaneously rather than sequentially?
- How can I design better thought experiments to challenge my most deeply held scientific assumptions?
- What are the limitations of the data I’m collecting, and how might they be skewing my conclusions?
- Which questions am I avoiding asking because they might invalidate my existing work?
“These questions reflect the kind of metacognitive thinking that often leads to scientific breakthroughs – examining not just the data itself but the frameworks through which we interpret it. Is there a particular area of your research where one of these questions might be especially relevant?”
I suggest that this may be worth thinking about.