Anecdotally, I don't think I've /caused/ any pain with the questions I've asked in my career, but I have often revealed pain that was otherwise hidden or being

Anecdotally, I don't think I've /caused/ any pain with the questions I've asked in my career, but I have often revealed pain that was otherwise hidden or being avoided. One of the most important skills I learned in my career was asking good incisive questions. The only way your team or organization can resolve problems is if you first acknowledge that the problem exists, and there are often problems in organizations "that everybody knows", that asking questions about (especially as a newbie or outsider) can help to resolve. It's definitely opening a can of worms, it's definitely painful, but the question doesn't cause the pain, it just reveals the pain that's already there.