Why stupid questions aren't stupid, but clever questions are!

I shall now reveal to you one of the low points of my interviewing career. It happened this fall with the great Canadian writer Nino "Lives of the Saints" Ricci. Nino is a very, very bright guy. More importantly, in retrospect, he's a very secure bright guy who doesn't have to go out of his way to show off how damn clever he is...unlike, oh ME!

Once I was asked in front of a class of students how to ask 'clever questions'. I replied that I tried to ask stupid questions because they were more likely to get a smart response. Sadly, I did not heed my own advice in this interview.

Usually when I am preparing for an interview, I try NOT to think consciously about the interview, but with Nino, I wanted to be clever. I wanted to impress this great Canadian writer.

I gave "The Origin of the Species" a lot of thought and came up with what I smugly believed was a clever witty first question. Hear the question. Hear it fall flat. Hear me wish the earth would open up and swallow me.

http://www.bookbits.ca/cleverquestion.mp3
 Despite this really, really rough spot, we continued and in the end I think it is a fairly good interview about a REALLY good book.

http://www.bookbits.ca/nricciPODPt1.mp3 RUNS 19:47

http://www.bookbits.ca/nricciPODPt2.mp3 RUNS 20:00