sparking curiosity

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” —Ellen Parr

The primary work skills of the past century can be summed up as — compliance, perseverance, diligence, and intelligence. These skills were needed for routine work and standardized jobs. Historically we have used human labour to do what machines cannot. First the machines caught up with us, and surpassed humans, with their brute force. Now they are surpassing us with their brute intelligence. There is a decreasing requirement for machine-like human work which is routine, standardized, or brute.

While the industrial economy was based on finite resources, a creative economy is not. There is no limit to human creativity. We have to make a new social contract — not based on jobs — but enabling a learner’s mindset for life.

The skills required to live in a world dominated by complex and non-routine work requires — creativity, imagination, empathy, and curiosity. The core skill is curiosity. Curiosity about ideas can foster creativity, while curiosity about people can develop empathy (not sympathy). We get new ideas from new people, not the same people we see every day. We get new perspectives from people whose lives and experiences are different from ours. We cannot be empathetic for others unless we are first curious about them. We cannot be creative unless we are first curious to learn new ideas.

Our close-knit social groups do not give us the diversity of knowledge and perspectives we need to navigate the complexities of our networked world. Simple solutions, or worse, those that reflect our peer groups, will fail us. We can learn about other people by engaging with them. With social media, we can actively avoid algorithmic recommendations on who to connect with and make up our own minds. The opportunities to connect with people we do not know are greater now than any time in history. Unfortunately, too many of us prefer our little comfort zones instead.

Some people seem to be naturally curious. Others work at it, while some just lack interest in learning. You can notice this when traveling. Some people can describe many aspects of their local vicinity while others don’t know anything about why certain features exist. They say that the most interesting people are those who are interested in others.

Empathy puts us in other people’s shoes. We try to understand their perspective. Empathy is a requisite perspective for the network era. Empathy means engaging with others. The ability to connect with diverse perspectives and experiences is the human potential of the Internet.

Here is an example of how curiosity about others yields understanding. B.J May shared ‘How 26 Tweets Broke My Filter Bubble’, which enabled him to see the world beyond a workplace that he described as, “All men, all heterosexual, all white”. He decided to follow Marco Rogers’ advice to use “Twitter as a way to understand viewpoints that diverge from your own”. At the end of this experiment, May turned this into a permanent practice.

“Every one of my opinions on the issues at hand had been challenged, and most had shifted or matured in some way. More importantly, however, was this: The exercise had taught me how to approach a contrary opinion with patience and respect, with curiosity and an intent to learn, with kindness and humanity.” —B.J. May

Would B.J. May have been able to learn as much through solitary reflection? His reflection was directly linked to his engagement with others, often fully so. It hurt to learn. He learned socially, as we have for millennia. We need time for reflection, but even more so, we need experiences to reflect upon. This makes our learning personal — felt in our gut. Real learning is not abstract. Curiosity drives real learning.

In 2020 we developed a program called Working Smarter @ Citi and I published a short case study about it. The program was based on my PKM framework and it is now being rolled out across the enterprise. The feedback has been quite positive and I think the key to its success is the first of the four modules — sparking curiosity. First we found out what people wanted to learn more about. The next three modules then provided ways to learn more and connect better in order to feed people’s personal curiosity. One external example we provided was how the Chairman of Nokia used his curiosity about machine learning to develop a comprehensive presentation for the entire company — helping make the network smarter.

Networks are made up of nodes (people) and relationships between them. Curiosity and learning can create new connections between people and ideas. If we put our efforts into promoting learning (not schooling) for life we just might be able to create better ways of organizing our society. Constantly learning fractal beings can make for more resilient knowledge networks.

Bruno Marion in Chaos: A User’s Guide describes a ‘fractal being’ as a person who can hold opposing views and multiple valences of understanding. I would also say it’s a person with an acceptance of life in perpetual beta.

“A more fractal being will assimilate and unify all these elements in a better way: curiosity, rebellion, infinite dreams, awareness, responsibility, detachment, and wisdom at each moment of his or her life. The fractal being will preserve the curiosity of the child in adult life, the capacity for rebellion and indignation of youth, and always aspire for the greater wisdom that comes with ripeness.” p. 97

Finding ways to increase curiosity, make connections, and see coincidences is one aspect of the personal knowledge mastery discipline.

Curiosity yields insight.

“Insight cannot be taken back. You cannot return to the moment you were in before.” —Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall)

Find this post useful? Check out the perpetual beta series