Asking the World Some of Life’s Most Important Questions

The Ten Key Questions

  1. What makes your life meaningful, and how can we find purpose in life?

  2. How do you find peace in suffering?

  3. How does understanding your mortality change the way you live?

  4. How do love and fear impact your life, and how can we overcome fear?

  5. What is the self, and who are you?

  6. How do you know what is true?

  7. What do you consider the most important value or principle to live by, and why?

  8. What are the deeper motivations behind our surface level wants and desires?

  9. What is the most important thing you’ve learned about human nature?

  10. If you could share one piece of wisdom with others, what would it be?

Question Criteria

1. Universal Relevance

Does this question apply to all humans, regardless of culture, belief, or circumstance?

2. Timelessness

Has this question persisted across generations, philosophies, and disciplines? 

3. Transformative Potential

Does this question encourage deep introspection, or inspire meaningful change in how people think, act, or feel?

4. Accessibility and Clarity 

Is the question clear enough to be answered without requiring specialized knowledge or excessive mental effort? Is one’s answer knowable intuitively?

5. Depth and Breadth

Does the question balance personal depth with broad application, allowing for a variety of meaningful answers?

6. Interpersonal Connection

Does the question foster empathy, understanding, or a shared moment between the asker and the respondent?

  • In-person and remote video interviews, along with self-submitted video responses.

  • Interviews can be audio only, conducted in person, online, or through self-recorded submissions.

  • Written responses to the questions can be emailed to info@keyquestions.org.

  • Want a more creative way to answer the questions? How about a combination of formats? Photos, art, sculpture, or any preferred format can be digitally submitted.

Submission Formats

Interpretation and Publication

I’m looking for commonalities and important differences in people’s answers across a broad demographic range. My hope is to find patterns and outliers that tell a story about how our species relates to some life’s most important matters, and to analyze them qualitatively with the help of AI. Upon gathering a wide range of submissions, the extent of which is undetermined at this point, I plan to publish the findings of the analysis, along with the story of my own personal journey of conducting the project.

This is my personal passion project, and sharing it will be guided by some of the most powerful information formats of our time, but will not necessarily fall under one particular medium. This is part study, part art project, and part free exploration. The project’s value is found in it’s impact on the lives of the participants, my own life, and the lives of those who benefit from absorbing other’s responses.