#note/sourcereview/article | #note/sourcereview/book ## What is the thesis? Curiosity, the quest for what is not known, has been a key driver in moving civilization forward. Yet our fire of curiosity is being systematically dampened by access to ever more information. Indeed, the perception that information is available reduces our quest to know, investigate, and learn. Thus, we need to stoke the coals with specific actions and ways of thinking. We need to re-become "thinkerers." ## Am I convinced and why? I do think there is a change in the way we access information, and that transition is a bit of a plateau or even a dip in how humans function as we learn how to merge our thinking with how machines store information. But, stepping back, the arguments about our demise in curiosity are likely to be looked back as a temporary state in the adoption curve of a new technology. Just like it taking 100 years to improve manufacturing after the invention of electric motors, it will take a century or more to improve thinking after the invention of electric knowledge storing. Indeed the moment right now of A/I will have new tradeoffs in exploration. And, there will always be the many who just use, and the few who explore. Which is why Ben Franklin is still talked about as an outlier in his time. There will be outliers in our time as well, who do more to move our human curiosity forward then all the rest of the world combined. ## Summarize the argument There exists three types of curiosity: - diversive curiosity: the quest for new experiences and exposures - Perceptual curiosity: the quest to see what's over there, what I cannot see from here - [[epistemic curiosity]]: the quest for new knowledge - empathic curiosity: the quest to seek to understand another human Specific ways of thinking can cultivate our epistemic and empathic curiosity such that we continue to explore is a key to future growth and discovery. Asking why can help trigger good questions for us to explore. Use [[Inquiry]] in systematic ways to get outside of yourself. ## What is the other side of the argument? [[ask about how something would work instead of why they believe it]], which is in direct conflict with sticking with the "why" level. He finishes with the allegory about Bjarni Herjolfsson who apparently sailed to the American continent in the first millenium CE but did not land, allowing Leif Eriksson to land later as the first known European to settle on North American soil. The argument is that Bjarni did not follow his curiosity and instead stayed on task. A question to ask is, "_when should I stay on task? How do I know when following my curiosity is a diversive distraction and when is it an epistemic discovery path?" ## What else do I wonder about? What [[essential questions]] should I be asking that I am not, in order to capture my curiosity? ## Action Implement a brainstorm session during my quarterly review when I walk and think about what questions I should be asking and why?_ ## When do I want to stumble across this? - [[need for cognition]]: Need for cognition, or NFC, is a scientific measure of intellectual curiosity. ## Source: Leslie, I. (2014). _Curious: The desire to know and why your future depends on it_. Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group. ## References, Quotes, Ideas ![[🐓 Idea Farm/Deadfall/For myself only/Readwise/Books/Curious|Curious]]