People love to make declarative statements, like these: “White people suck,” “Men are rapists,” “Beck deserved the Album of the Year Grammy.” While saying these things makes it easy for you to share your thoughts, they’re kind of useless if you want to have a discussion that goes somewhere other than into a shouting match.

Asking questions instead of making statements is one major way to avoid arguments, spend less time dealing with stupid problems and make yourself much more likable. Here’s a few reasons why.