Eh. Stupid questions of various varieties do exist (and it is not unkind to recognize that). They mostly arise from: * mental laziness (didn't want to spend a

Eh. Stupid questions of various varieties do exist (and it is not unkind to recognize that). They mostly arise from: * mental laziness (didn't want to spend a few seconds thinking and just wanted to be handed the answer -- very commonly disguised as curiosity) * bad faith (trolling, attempts at eliciting humor, "not really a question but a comment", agenda pushing) It's very tiring to respond to stupid questions of this ilk -- it shifts the burden from the questioner to the respondent. It's not neutral, and having an environment of "no question is stupid" is draining -- psychologically, empathy is a finite resource like it or not. That's why there are so many guides on how to ask questions. (asking questions that elicit useful answers is actually a life skill!) That said, I think the spirit of "no-stupid questions" is really about being open to (1) really out-of-left-field questions that challenge our thinking; (2) sincere questions that arise from curiosity; (3) clarification so that one doesn't persist in the wrong direction. I think this framing should be encouraged and environments/cultures should be cultivated to enable this. But in my opinion "no stupid questions" as a catch-all is not practically tenable. The costs seem too one-sided.