We are all born curious. But our curiosity can get us into trouble.

Overtime, we tend to stop being curious.

That can greatly disadvantage us. They either follow the status quo. Or they stubbornly insist on their points of view, despite all the signals of inaccuracies.

According to Githens (2019)1, curious individuals:

Tend to question everything. They want to know how things work and wonder how they can be made to work better. They're curious about people and their back stories.

Here’s how to (re)cultivate curiosity:

  1. Question everything: pay attention to how things work, ask why they work the way they do, dream about how the same outcome can be achieved via different ways.
  2. Ask ‘what’s interesting’?: via Isaacson and Bezos (2020)2: Leonardo da Vinci is known for filling his notebooks with seemingly random questions.
  3. Am I in learning mode: when there has been too many days without finding anything interesting, ask yourself, “Am I in learning mode?”

Remember, someone who is curious is also easily distracted. While exploring something that caught your attention, you might get sidetracked by something else. So make sure you start taking notes.

  1. Githens, G. (2019). How to Think Strategically. (p. 59), Maven House.
  2. Isaacson, W. and Bezos, J. (2020). Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos. Harvard Business Review Press.