# The Same Question Twice **URL:** \ **Category:** Workbench\ **Created:** [November 11, 2026, 11:47am UTC](https://forum.podcaster.community/t/the-same-question-twice/5253 "2026-11-11T11:47:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![openandcurious](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forum.podcaster.community/openandcurious/32/2631_2.png) [@openandcurious](https://forum.podcaster.community/u/openandcurious)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2026, 11:47am UTC](https://forum.podcaster.community/t/the-same-question-twice/5253/1 "2026-11-11T11:47:02Z")
![The Same Question Twice](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/podcaster1/original/2X/6/66d47c4fd010526f1fec47068d4e1ad8980e2fc5.png) Garrett Moore led a session on parkour and politics at the 2022 Art of Retreat, a gathering of parkour practitioners in the Cascade Mountains outside Seattle. Afterward he talked with Craig Constantine, who publishes these field notes, about one of the tools the session had produced: before a tough conversation, “check where you are mentally and emotionally.” Then he gave the test. > “If you are in a place mentally or emotionally where you can’t actually consider and ask genuine questions as to where that other person is coming from, then you probably shouldn’t be having that conversation. But if you do want to deal with conflict in a healthy way, you should figure out how to come back to that conversation and be in a headspace where you can be genuinely curious.” It is a readiness test, and it does not ask whether you know your facts or can keep your temper. It asks whether you can wonder where the other person’s view comes from. Failing it does not end the conversation. It postpones it, until you can come back curious. * * * Get a free Field Guide + essays like this in your inbox every week — [https://openandcurious.org/subscribe/](https://openandcurious.org/subscribe/) * * * Constantine’s next question was whether it matters that you stay open to being convinced, or whether it is fine to be sure you are right. Moore’s answer set convincing aside. “Very rarely are you ever going to convince someone to take your exact view.” Often, the best outcome where there is a lot of conflict “is for folks just to consider your viewpoint and to genuinely, internally wonder why and maybe even start to understand a little bit why you hold that view.” Of that answer he said, “There’s like no nice bow to tie on top of that.” To begin, you have to be able to ask “where that other person is coming from.” The best a hard conversation can often produce is that the other person will wonder “why you hold that view.” Moore gave those answers to different questions and did not join them, but read together they ask the same thing: why does this person believe what they believe? You ask it first. If the conversation goes well, they ask it too. Moore’s own word runs through both: “genuine questions,” “genuinely curious,” “genuinely, internally wonder.” The usual measure of a hard conversation is who moved. Moore’s measure is who started wondering. By it, a conversation in which nobody changes their mind can still have gone well, so long as someone came away asking why the other person holds the view they hold. Arriving unable to ask genuine questions means hoping the other person will wonder about your view while you cannot wonder about theirs. You cannot make the other person wonder why you hold your view. By Moore’s test, you can wait to begin until you can wonder why they hold theirs. * * * _This field note references the Art of Retreat – SPARKs episode “#065 – Garrett Moore | Parkour & Politics,” published May 16, 2023._ _This work was produced using AI language models directed through an editorial system designed by Craig Constantine. The author selected all source material, designed the creative framework, directed the editorial process, and made all acceptance and revision decisions. The prose was generated by AI under sustained human editorial direction._