Good geeks ask “why?”.

If you give them a number to hit, they’ll ask “why?”. If you tell them your sales goals, they might ask “why?”. If you ask them to do something, they’ll ask “why?”.

If your geek fails to ask “why?”, you probably don’t have a great geek on your hands. Or she is shy, and you should make her comfortable enough to ask “why?”.

Why?

Well, I’m glad you asked…

Asking “why?” shows curiosity, which is a close cousin of creativity. I find that geeks can get to the fundamental issues of a matter and develop a solution that is often better than the original task proposed (the one that they questioned). If they don’t ask “why?”, your geeks risk getting stuck in the box of your way of doing it.

Yes, it’s possible for them to go overboard, and sometimes you won’t have a good answer to their question, but don’t be worried when geeks ask “why?”, be worried when they don’t.