“The unexamined life is not worth living”
Probably one of the best experiences in life is asking and answering the question of “why?”
Past the age of 10, or so, when it stops becoming a Calvin & Hobbes-esque way of annoying people, I think it’s hard to ask “why” enough. It’s important to ask the right “why?” though, as there are several which are not the same question.
Scientific why
This is probably the most pure form of why that we usually think of. “What mechanisms/processes caused that observation to occur? Under what conditions should I expect the same or similar observation? Can I model the processes that caused me to observe that phenomenon and make predictions from the model?”
tldr: follow the scientific method.
But for real this is probably what you think of when you think of the question “why?” but I’m putting it here to make clear that this is one (very specific) form of the many questions of “why?”
There are better and worse answers to these objective whys. If I say “gravity exists because a genie made it so,” that’s not a very good answer. It may actually be right but the scientific method tells us that we almost certainly shouldn’t believe it over modern understandings of physics.
Engineering why
This why asks, more precisely, “why is this the best way to do this? Can it be done better? What tradeoffs are we making?”
This should be asked about processes that can be |measured and optimized. Can it be done better, i feel, is an innately human nature, competitive, curious question that is at the root of a lot of the ways we interact with our world. It is very different than the scientific why, though, despite a lot of the answers coming about in similar ways.
This question also has better and worse answers, but under different contexts (objective functions) different answers might have different tradeoffs which are better in some cases but worse than others. It’s important to explicitly detail what you are optimizing for and how the criterion are weighted, so you can find an objectively best answer to your current problem.
Artistic why
“Why did the artist present the work this way? What images/emotions did they intend to conjure up?”
This is more obviously asked with artistic mediums like paintings, movies, sculpture, etc. It can also be applied to more practical endeavors like engineerings; constructions like buildings and bridges are often very artistic so a) they don’t look terrible and b) because it’s fun to do.
It may not come into words, but really feel what emotions a creation evokes. Are they good? Bad? What was the artist going through? What do you think the artist was thinking when they made the decision to present it this way?
Modern art follow up
I’m also a big fan of the follow up “Were they aware of this decision themselves?” I think a lot of the revolution of modern art has been putting much of the artistic experience in the beholder. That’s not just a painting you’re looking at but an evocation of the human experience and the artist’s perspective of life mixed with your own.
There’s likely no right answer to the artistic why. There may be, factually, something that was going through the artists head at the moment of creation, but they may not have been aware of it themselves nor might they have been able to put it into words. Also, their interpretation/consumption of the work is almost certainly totally different than yours because you are not the same person. You may be thinking something totally different than the author but your experience is no less valid, so long as it’s well thought out.
Religious/existential why
“Why did this happen to me? Why is life the way it is? Why does _____ exist? Why do I exist?”
Outright this likely has no correct answer. Even if you are religious, you cannot know what an omnipotent and omnipresent god was thinking when they created you. So, maybe read that as ‘no human will ever give a correct answer’.
For everyone else, what better answer are we going to have than the religious scholars who have spent thousands of years trying to answer this question? Not to say you shouldn’t think about it, or you might be closer to the truth, but there is no right answer.
I think it’s actually the opposite of a waste of time to ask this question and think about it. Personally, it has lead to a lot of introspection and answers/improvements to other areas of my life that I did not expect and probably wouldn’t have improved otherwise. Part of the benefit of asking why is that you might not find the answer you’re looking for but you’ll often find something.
When not to ask why
Don’t ask why when you’re enjoying yourself at peace, when it would offend someone, when you are already going down doom-spiral thinking, etc. Have common sense to some degree, but it’s a very rewarding question to ask seriously.