Up to a certain point in their studies, students seek out knowledge merely in order to complete their academic assignments. Scientists often gather information as functionally necessary pieces of a larger project that doesn’t particularly hold their interest.
Curiosity is something more than that. It’s an emotional hunger for knowledge, it’s a passionate yearning for discovery for its own sake.
Curiosity is an urge to obtain knowledge without needing a clear idea of what purpose that knowledge could serve. It’s often a circular frame of mind, as one discovery provokes the desire for another. True curiosity is never idle, but it doesn’t feel labored either. There’s a playfulness to it, a desire to remain in the game of finding out more, knowing that the pleasure of it is unlimited. The more we indulge our curiosity, the more likely we are to find new things to be curious about.
Pursuing one’s curiosity is much more than useful. It’s fun.
Curiosity and arrogance are not good partners. Curiosity is an emotion we can access only when we are willing to admit that there are things that are worth knowing that we have no idea about. The curious know that they’re ignorant, but also know that it’s within their power not to remain that way.
To be curious, we have to be willing to be impressed by the world, even as we accept that we cannot be certain of the nature of what we discover, if we discover anything at all.
Curiosity begins a quest with a question, and an openness to possibility of being transformed through the pursuit of an answer.
