You did a great job of creating that work culture. I loved how we’d sit down and wrangle with a problem together. I’ve applied that model to my own teams as well.
You made me look into a mirror and go, “oops!”. Two thoughts, if I may. I recall as a kid going out at night, lying on my back, looking at the stars and wondering if there was some kid out there on a planet around some distant star looking at the same sky. Looking in that mirror I realize I’ve lost that sense of curiosity and wonder I had so many years ago. Thank you for reminding me.
There’s curiosity and there’s curiosity. I find myself holding my alternate brain and hopping from topic to topic on the Internet. I too frequently rationalize the time I spend doom scrolling saying to myself that this is curiosity and I’m learning. Perhaps there’s some truth to that, I’m not sure exactly how to explain the difference, but it seems to be curiosity and it’s close cousin wonderment need to be more active. My brain says to me, there’s a difference between scrolling the Internet and holding a book in my hand. I don’t know how to explain it, but I think it’s true.
Thank you Michael for encouraging my feeble brain to get off it butt and start exploring… and wondering.
Thanks for sharing that because I deal with the same things. Writing this essay challenged myself because I, too, doomscroll and justify it. Those video shorts are the worst because I make excuses. It’s something we have to keep challenging ourselves to do. Be curious in the right ways!
Book 3 is a pivot to the survivors on earth from Book 1 and actually shifts style from pure sci-fi to alt-fantasy almost. Really, I just need to sit down and put pen to paper but work has gotten crazy the past 6 months.
You tickled us by promising 3 additional books. Now you have to deliver or leave readers hanging! This is why I usually wait until a book series is completed before starting the series.
Better hire a ghostwriter or an AI assistant. [lol]
I find that curiousness tends to correlate with IQ.
A big problem with curiosity is that one tends to question everything around them, why things are done in a particular way, why this is important instead of that and muchmore. It tends to make people uncomfortable, primarily because THEY don't actually know the reasons why they do most things other than they were taught or told to do so in a certain way.
I come from a blue-collar family. My mom would often berate me as to how come I was always asking why this and why that? She didn't know the answers and wasn't interested in knowing the answers.
This is a problem in corporations also. Very few people are curious or want to actually change anything in a company. Most are happy to just play the game and collect their paychecks.
This is why I greatly appreciate the new AI's. As an older person, I know very few curious people. But I can ask Perplexity or chatGPT anything, no matter how obtuse or off-the-wall and get reasonable responses almost immediately!
I’m not sure how much IQ because I’ve known some incredibly curious people who weren’t high IQ and some very incurious people with IQs off the charts but always accepted ‘this is how it is’. I think there’s more of a temperment / personality consideration in the mix. I’ll have to think on that more.
I agree, that very few people actually think about why they think what they think. :) I also agree that AI is great for curiosity. I’m using the hell out of deep research.
"Now, insatiably curious is a whole other animal. It’s an active stance that moves beyond just the humor of what others are doing or the introspection of yourself. Insatiable curiosity is the drive to really look across, between, and under topics to find the truth, regardless of how uncomfortable it really is."
----
I'm unsure why you felt the need to include "and under topics to find the truth, regardless of how uncomfortable it really is" in this definition.
Truth doesn't have to be uncomfortable. Truth just "is". Whether truth makes one uncomfortable or not would seem to be related to any preconceived ideas ("truthiness"?) that a person might hold.
Perhaps this is some latent reference to your religious indoctrination as a child and discovering that what was written in the Bible wasn't necessarily true?
Part of it is religion, but not necessarily from my own shoes, but watching others refuse to turn over a rock out of fear for what they might find. I see it at work as well, where they don't want to question why they're doing something, because it typically shows that the work is actually non-value-added (from my Six Sigma work)
Even in the Army, there are a lot of folks who can't stomach the idea that the war they fought in wasn't patriotic; it was bad politics. They can't face that what they sacrificed might have been for the wrong thing. So, instead of facing the uncomfortable truth, they double down on the patriotism.
Interesting. I hadn’t thought of it like that. Let me try to consider that against the goal of my writing…
Each paradigm we break down unlocks us to explore new things. The less we ‘know’ the more we realize there is to know. The way I read that is that in a small mind, I know 10 things about 15 total. As I stretch I realize that there are actually 100 things and now I know 11. As I stretch again I find that there are 10,000 things and I now know 12.
Then 10,000,000 to 13
100,000,000,000 to 15
1000,000,000,000,000 to 20
…
∞ to 500 which… effectively = nothing
I hope, while you’re here, you’re learning something new and learning a lot of other things as well. It’s not that you don’t know any thing. It’s that you realize that in comparison, the world is your oyster to explore and you aren’t constrained.
Yes, I understand this. I just don't think that quote represents the concept accurately. I queried chatGPT for similar quotes and like this one better:
Einstein: “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
Excellent essay! This approach builds a highly productive and positive
work culture. Good leaders support this by reducing the fears and asking thoughtful questions to stimulate curiosity.
You did a great job of creating that work culture. I loved how we’d sit down and wrangle with a problem together. I’ve applied that model to my own teams as well.
You made me look into a mirror and go, “oops!”. Two thoughts, if I may. I recall as a kid going out at night, lying on my back, looking at the stars and wondering if there was some kid out there on a planet around some distant star looking at the same sky. Looking in that mirror I realize I’ve lost that sense of curiosity and wonder I had so many years ago. Thank you for reminding me.
There’s curiosity and there’s curiosity. I find myself holding my alternate brain and hopping from topic to topic on the Internet. I too frequently rationalize the time I spend doom scrolling saying to myself that this is curiosity and I’m learning. Perhaps there’s some truth to that, I’m not sure exactly how to explain the difference, but it seems to be curiosity and it’s close cousin wonderment need to be more active. My brain says to me, there’s a difference between scrolling the Internet and holding a book in my hand. I don’t know how to explain it, but I think it’s true.
Thank you Michael for encouraging my feeble brain to get off it butt and start exploring… and wondering.
Thanks for sharing that because I deal with the same things. Writing this essay challenged myself because I, too, doomscroll and justify it. Those video shorts are the worst because I make excuses. It’s something we have to keep challenging ourselves to do. Be curious in the right ways!
So speaking of curiosity, I am almost finished with your Integration book.
Do you have any status update on your work completing the remaining books in the series?
Book 3 is a pivot to the survivors on earth from Book 1 and actually shifts style from pure sci-fi to alt-fantasy almost. Really, I just need to sit down and put pen to paper but work has gotten crazy the past 6 months.
You tickled us by promising 3 additional books. Now you have to deliver or leave readers hanging! This is why I usually wait until a book series is completed before starting the series.
Better hire a ghostwriter or an AI assistant. [lol]
Haha. Sorry! I’m planning to start cranking through the hoidays.
I find that curiousness tends to correlate with IQ.
A big problem with curiosity is that one tends to question everything around them, why things are done in a particular way, why this is important instead of that and muchmore. It tends to make people uncomfortable, primarily because THEY don't actually know the reasons why they do most things other than they were taught or told to do so in a certain way.
I come from a blue-collar family. My mom would often berate me as to how come I was always asking why this and why that? She didn't know the answers and wasn't interested in knowing the answers.
This is a problem in corporations also. Very few people are curious or want to actually change anything in a company. Most are happy to just play the game and collect their paychecks.
This is why I greatly appreciate the new AI's. As an older person, I know very few curious people. But I can ask Perplexity or chatGPT anything, no matter how obtuse or off-the-wall and get reasonable responses almost immediately!
I’m not sure how much IQ because I’ve known some incredibly curious people who weren’t high IQ and some very incurious people with IQs off the charts but always accepted ‘this is how it is’. I think there’s more of a temperment / personality consideration in the mix. I’ll have to think on that more.
I agree, that very few people actually think about why they think what they think. :) I also agree that AI is great for curiosity. I’m using the hell out of deep research.
"Now, insatiably curious is a whole other animal. It’s an active stance that moves beyond just the humor of what others are doing or the introspection of yourself. Insatiable curiosity is the drive to really look across, between, and under topics to find the truth, regardless of how uncomfortable it really is."
----
I'm unsure why you felt the need to include "and under topics to find the truth, regardless of how uncomfortable it really is" in this definition.
Truth doesn't have to be uncomfortable. Truth just "is". Whether truth makes one uncomfortable or not would seem to be related to any preconceived ideas ("truthiness"?) that a person might hold.
Perhaps this is some latent reference to your religious indoctrination as a child and discovering that what was written in the Bible wasn't necessarily true?
Part of it is religion, but not necessarily from my own shoes, but watching others refuse to turn over a rock out of fear for what they might find. I see it at work as well, where they don't want to question why they're doing something, because it typically shows that the work is actually non-value-added (from my Six Sigma work)
Even in the Army, there are a lot of folks who can't stomach the idea that the war they fought in wasn't patriotic; it was bad politics. They can't face that what they sacrificed might have been for the wrong thing. So, instead of facing the uncomfortable truth, they double down on the patriotism.
People usually don't want to know/face a truth when that truth may cause them to lose their income, status or other thing of value to their reality.
There's a famous quote which kind of encapsulates this concept in terms of money but can be extended to anything of value:
"It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It"
--Upton Sinclair?
"The only thing I know, is that I know nothing.”
---
I've never liked this quote and I'll take issue with it by asking, why then am I reading what you write if there is nothing I can learn from doing so?
Interesting. I hadn’t thought of it like that. Let me try to consider that against the goal of my writing…
Each paradigm we break down unlocks us to explore new things. The less we ‘know’ the more we realize there is to know. The way I read that is that in a small mind, I know 10 things about 15 total. As I stretch I realize that there are actually 100 things and now I know 11. As I stretch again I find that there are 10,000 things and I now know 12.
Then 10,000,000 to 13
100,000,000,000 to 15
1000,000,000,000,000 to 20
…
∞ to 500 which… effectively = nothing
I hope, while you’re here, you’re learning something new and learning a lot of other things as well. It’s not that you don’t know any thing. It’s that you realize that in comparison, the world is your oyster to explore and you aren’t constrained.
I view that quote as a challenge, not an insult.
Yes, I understand this. I just don't think that quote represents the concept accurately. I queried chatGPT for similar quotes and like this one better:
Einstein: “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
Great work!
Thank you so much......
Awesome. I appreciate that.
Fantastic reminder and a true mental challenge to embrace. Thanks for this!
Awesome to hear!