Search for eHow online and you’ll be bombarded with tons of How To’s and a thriving website. But try that with eWhy and you get a practically non-existent website.
How come there are no Why To’s on the web? And yet so many How To’s?
I do get it from a certain mindset – the world is a scary place and it’s getting more and more complicated by the day. How To’s make it easier for us to do the things we want to do.
We want to bake a cake for our soon to arrive guests yet we don’t know how, we search “How to bake a cake”; we want to pick our own locks because we’re trapped outside with no key, we search “How to pick a lock”; we want to make money online because our jobs suck, we search “How to make money online”; And on, and on, and on. (Surprisingly one of the top hits for “How to” is “How to shower”.) How To’s help us in a moment of crisis, How To’s help us learn things we weren’t taught in school, and How To’s help us help ourselves.
But isn’t WHY as, if not more, important as how?
Shouldn’t we slow down a little and ask ourselves why we’re doing so and so? Why am I baking this cake? Why am I picking my own lock? Why am I working at a job I hate?
Sure the first two are easy to answer (I’m baking a cake because I want my friends to enjoy cake today, and I’m picking my own lock because I’m stuck outside and have no other way to get it), but what about the third one? Now that’s a doozy to answer.
Q: Why are you working at a job you hate?
A: For the money.
Q: Why are you working at a job you hate for the money?
A: Because I need the money in order to do what I love.
Q: Why do you need all that money in order to do what you love?
A: ….
It goes on and on. Just ask any parent with a curious child, Why questions make you self-reflect to the point that you find yourself sitting down and questioning everything you’ve ever done like a madman. And Why question (like “Why do this?”), unlike most How questions, don’t have a specific right or wrong answer. This shouldn’t be seen as the reason to not focus on the Why questions though (we have this habit of avoiding the hard, yet necessary, questions). It should actually be the reason to embrace them.
A Why question can save you tons of money (Why buy this expensive car?), by showing you that the reason you’re buying that expensive car is to fit in with people you don’t necessarily like. A Why question can help you marry the woman of your dreams (Why wait?), by showing you that there’s no reason to wait any longer. And a Why question can help you quit that job you hate (Why are you working at job you hate?), by showing you that doing what you love rarely needs that much money – mostly passion and drive. Can a How question do any of that?
In my search for eWhy, I’ve stumbled upon a surprising fact – the Why To posts are already here, in numbers… They’re just not as visible.
The Why To’s are hiding in the [good] blogs all over the world.
Bloggers around the world are actually talking and teaching about why to better yourself (this always warms my heart everytime I think about it … and yes, that was sappy, so what?). Bloggers are luring unwary readers in with How To’s and giving them the Why To’s on the side (I know I am, or at least that’s what I aim for). Bloggers are starting to tell more and more people to self-reflect, to look at what they really want in life, and to examine whether or not the path they’re on will lead to where they want to be in life.
Bloggers are rolling in the new world – the coming revolution of the Why To.
Now if only more real-world teachers would learn a thing or two from these bloggers and realize that although their students are there to learn How To you should teach them something they don’t quiet know they need yet, the Why To. (ps- I’m not shunning the great teachers. The great teachers already know this, but 1- I’m looking at this from a ‘webby’ point of view, and 2- I’m talking about the teachers en masse.)
I’d greatly admire the teacher who takes a step back from “How to Learn” and instead examines “Why to Learn”. And I know I’d be the first person to applaud the teacher who takes the time to individually question each and every one of their students Why they’re there. The only problem being that this requires the teacher see their occupation as more than “a job”.
… In the coming years I forsee the rise of the Why To. In a world where How To’s are getting older and older faster and faster, and where everything’s changing at a such a rapid pace that the moment you learn how to use a new technology, you’ll find yourself having to learn how to use the even newer technology that’s just now replaced it, Why To’s will start becoming more and more important. We’re going to figure out that we have all these How To’s on our hands, yet we can’t possibly learn everything. What the Why To will do for us is eliminate the unnecessary. The Why To will be sought before the How To because more and more people will want to know whether or not they need the How To (before searching for the “How to get married” post, we’ll be searching for the “Why to get married” one).
Why To’s also have a much longer relevancy time than How To’s. For Why To’s generally point at life and it’s purpose, and living never get’s old (is that a joke?). Aristotle and Plato are still as relevant today, if not more, as they were 2000 years ago. Thoughts about our purpose in life never go away. And the pursuit of happiness is one that’s beyond time; we all want happiness.
What I’m getting at through all this is that we’ve come far with the How To, but we’re going to have to take it a step further and look at the Why To.
We came from fishing for the man to teaching the man How to fish for himself. And that used to be enough, but now that the fisherman already knows how to fish, we’re going to have to teach him Why to fish… Or else he’s just going to keep collecting fish all day mindlessly, whether or not he’s full.
I know that the Why To’s and How To’s should correctly be spelt Why Tos and How Tos (they don’t have ownership afterall). But I figured that some people might confuse these correct spellings for different words entirely (what the hell’s a Tos?). I figured the message was more important that the punctuation (isn’t it always?) so I made an executive decision. So Punctuation Fanatics, forgive me… and the excessive capitalization.