the good and bad of neverending curiosity

 

This post is a companion to my boundaries of ignorance post.

To me, there is a difference between gaining knowledge and having curiosity.

Curiosity is that little engine inside your ethos <soul, stomach, etc.> that keeps your mind chugging along. Unfortunately it can be maddening in that it is rarely linear and often random and can run at a variety of speeds.

Curiosity is the spark to gaining whatever knowledge you eventually accumulate.

I know I am almost always head over heels in like with smart people who are knowledgeable about a variety of things. Which typically leads to the fact I am always head over heels in love with people who are incessantly curious. People whose curiosity engine is always running.

Yup.

I admit.

I love those people.

That said. Let me spend a minute on curiosity and, specifically, never ending curiosity. Never ending curiosity is the part of someone that has recognition there is a bottomless pit of knowledge out in the world.

If you put those two things together (bottomless pit & knowledge) in your mind and get comfortable with that thought and not let the bottomless part frustrate you, you will have a lot of fun in life.

Because for everything you know there is some indefinable exponential amount of things remaining you don’t know. Drink as much of knowledge as you can and it it is still just a drop in the Great Lake. And that is fun.

Now. I have heard people in the business world say “I want to know everything there is to know on this topic.”

I have often thought that was one of the silliest things anyone could ever say.

You can know a lot.

You can know enough to be dangerous.

But knowledge is truly a bottomless pit. Even on one topic you probably don’t have enough hours in a lifetime to know everything there is. I guess that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, but suggesting you know everything is … well … silly.

But.

Knowing what you know is good.

Knowing you could know more is … well … even gooder.

And knowing you want to know more all the time … well … that is the goodest I guess.

Anyway. Curiosity is one of the three things I tell young people is the secret to success (the other two are resiliency and character).

Curiosity is a cornerstone to personal growth (which, ultimately, is the biggest ‘success’). I believe as long as you retain your curiosity and are always seeking to learn more in the attempt to sate it then you are well on your way to being successful if not just a more interesting person.

Oh. And, of course, because this is my site, curiosity means at some point you are challenging ignorance (and becoming a wee bit more enlightened … i haven’t used “wee” in awhile and this was a good excuse).

But, hey, that’s me.

To paraphrase the Faber College <of Animal House> motto of “knowledge is good” … curiosity is good <on the infamous Bruce “good/bad” scale>.

Curiosity aids in the fight for knowledge. Mainly because curiosity leads to some version of enlightenment <another good on the “good/bad scale>.

 

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Written by Bruce