Wonder Why... We Wonder?

When I was a toddler, my grandma used to say I had too many hands and legs to know what to do with. She doesn't speak English, so please take my translation with a pinch of salt... but you get the gist: I was a curious child.

Once I could talk, the questions started pouring in. My dad eventually grew impatient, and his go-to response became: “Perhaps you can find the answer in a book.” To this day, he insists it was about teaching me independence. Personally, I suspect he just wanted some peace.

Why have we stopped asking 'why'?

It makes sense. “Why” questions are much harder to answer than “what,” “how,” “when,” “where,” or “who.” They rarely have simple answers.

I read somewhere that children between the ages of 3 and 5 can ask hundreds of questions a day, with some studies showing figures as high as 300, and “why” being the most common. As adults, however, that number plummets.

According to this blog post (do tell me if you think the data isn't accurate), here's a breakdown of the types of questions that people ask Google most often, based on the US top 100 questions from August 2024 to August 2025:

• What: 28%
• How: 44%
• When: 18%
• Where: 4%
• Who: 5%
• Why: 1%

Somewhere along the way, our curiosity gets edited out. We move from asking the impossible to focusing on the practical.

“How” keeps life moving, “why” gives it depth

And yet, isn’t “why” the very question that makes us human?

Evolutionarily speaking, the theory is that humans who asked “why” — why is this fruit bitter? Why is the sky dark? — were more likely to survive. Those who simply consumed without question didn’t make it very far. Curiosity kept us alive, pushing us to test, to learn, to adapt.

So really, curiosity isn’t just a quirk. Asking “why” may have kept our ancestors alive; it’s probably the reason we’re still here!

Modern psychology backs this up. Curiosity activates the brain’s reward system, releasing dopamine when we explore and discover. In other words, wondering doesn’t just help us survive — it feels good. Researchers at the University of California even found that people are more likely to remember information learned when they were curious about the answer. Wonder literally makes us smarter.

While today's society rewards efficiency, i.e., the “how” (how to get things done, how to move faster, how to achieve more) — fulfillment comes from “why.” It’s the one that leads us not just to answers, but to meaning.

Think about it: “How do I get promoted?” is useful. But “Why do I want this promotion?” means more. “How do I cook dinner?” fills the stomach. “Why do I cook for others?” fills the soul.

So let's start wondering again

Philosophers understood this long before today. Aristotle wrote, “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” Einstein called curiosity his only special talent. Across time, cultures have celebrated the act of asking questions — not for utility, but for the way it opens the mind.

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” — Aristotle

With Google, we can outsource our “how,” but we can’t outsource our “why.”

So I'm starting this series, Wonder Why, to explore the questions that spark curiosity in everyday life — the ones that keep us restless, searching, alive.

Some will be lighthearted — like why you might prefer The Hunger Games to Divergent. Others will be weightier — like why we wonder at all. But whether trivial or profound, each question deserves attention.

Because to wonder is to be human. And maybe the point isn’t to find the answer, but to keep asking better questions.

So let’s start wondering again.

What’s your “why”? Share a thought, or suggest a question we can explore together as part of the Wonder Why series.