| Depends on context, but I like variations of the ole "If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about (your life | your job | this situation | your marriage | whatever), what would you change?" Another good one, is this - after asking a series of questions, ask "Is there anything I should have asked you, that I didn't?" This seems more appropriate for business conversations than casual smalltalk / social situations, but you might be able to riff on it and come up with some useful variations. Also, for when talking to doctors: "What's the worst thing that could be causing my symptoms?" "Could I have multiple problems contributing to these symptoms?" "If this diagnosis were to turn out wrong, what would the correct diagnosis then probably turn out to be?" Credit to "How Doctors Think" for the above three (not necessarily word for word, but the spirit of them anyway). |