On asking questions
A quote from Gadamer
Hans-Georg Gadamer writes:
“Among the greatest insights that Plato's account of Socrates affords us is that, contrary to the general opinion, it is more difficult to ask questions than to answer them. When the partners in the Socratic dialogue are unable to answer Socrates’ awkward questions and try to turn the tables by assuming what they suppose is the preferable role of the questioner, they come to grief. Behind this comic motif in the Platonic dialogues there is the critical distinction between authentic and inauthentic dialogue. To someone who engages in dialogue only to prove himself right and not to gain insight, asking questions will indeed seem easier than answering them. There is no risk that he will be unable to answer a question. In fact, however, the continual failure of the interlocutor shows that people who think they know better cannot even ask the right questions. In order to be able to ask, one must want to know, and that means knowing that one does not know.” (Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method [trans., Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall; New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2013], p. 371)
At best answers (proofs) to some questions (theorems) just do that- resolve that one questions. You may get your Ph.D. , but the result will just gather dust. But there are some questions (theorems) whose answers (proofs) have far reaching consequences. At times one stubbles on such questions and are surprised its far reaching consequences. But there are a few gifted people who can see how to pose the right question, whose solution will have far reaching consequences.