How To Be Curious?
and the two types of curiosity
Hello friends,
How have you been this week?
If you read my letter last week, you know that I have recently started a new job.
Starting a new job or a project is an exciting time. The feeling of beginning a new adventure creates the fresh start effect that motivates us to perform at our best. We have new goals, routines, and things to learn. Such newness is attractive to human being and the pursuit of it gives us dose of dopamine that keeps us energetic and makes our life moments more memorable. In response to novelty, human beings have evolve to have curiosity - an emotion tied with a motivation to close the gap between the known and the unknown. So, I am embracing curiosity to explore my new role at a new environment.
With that in mind, let’s us talk about curiosity this week. By the end of this article, you will learn about the nature of curiosity, two types of curiosity, and how to be curious like a pro.
Enjoy!
I. What is curiosity?
Curiosity refers to the motivational drive to obtain information to bridge the gap in knowledge, often driven by a strong passion for learning, and can be painful if left unsatisfied.
Most people view curiosity as a sign of intelligence and a willingness to learn. It drives us to explore, question, and understand the world around us. While some may see excessive curiosity as nosiness, the general consensus is that curiosity keeps minds active and engaged, fostering growth and discovery. Indeed, research has shown that curiosity is linked with positive outcomes such as greater life satisfaction, higher work engagement, positive academic performance, boosted creativity, learning, and a zest for life.
Although some people are born more inquisitive than others, you can always learn to be better at being curious. Meta-analysis review showed that curiosity can be increased through deliberate interventions such as mindfulness training, game playing, and participating in a learning environment that support autonomy by giving choice, structure, and principle.
II. Two types of curiosity
There are two types of curiosity: Interest and Deprivation.
When you are intrinsically motivated to learn something new, for the joy of exploration, you are blessed with interest curiosity. This type of curiosity helps you expand your knowledge base, remain unassuming about what you know, and discern information quality.
Other times, when you are motivated to acquire information because you want to avoid the unpleasant affect of uncertainty, anxiety, or boredom, you are cursed with deprivation interest. This curiosity type might help you gain information, but in the long run, it does more harm than good because the information that you are attracted to in this state of mind might not be of high quality.
Knowing the types of curiosity at work can help you regulate this powerful resources to help you achieve your goals while avoiding its negative side effect.
III. How to be better at being curious?
As you can see, curiosity can be a double-edged sword. If left unsharpened, it can go in the wrong direction. Here are some ways you can start applying to practice the skill of curiosity.
Ask more questions.
The most intuitive way to cultivate curiosity is simply to ask more.
Instead of accepting things as they are, ask "Why?" "How?" and "What if?". This keeps you open to deeper understanding. For example, if you encounter something unfamiliar, make a habit of digging into its origins, functions, or implications.
Curiosity is also a healthy habit for deeper relationships. But many people use it the wrong way. We ask questions about people in absence but not those in front of us. We ask close-ended questions that hurry for a conclusion rather than an exploration.
A very useful framework for practicing curiosity in conversation is the seven coaching questions by Michael Stainer introduced in his 2019 book The Coaching Habit. Although you do not need to put your coaching hat on every time you meet someone, you can always use these questions when you want to connect deeply with a person. Next time, when you have a conversation with someone you care about, consider asking them one of these seven questions and listening attentively:
What is on your mind? This question helps you start the talk with an open mind.
And what’s else? This show that you care and are curious to learn more.
What is the REAL challenge here for YOU? This focuses the talk in the person in front of you and the problem they are having
What do you want? This question helps the person gain clarity about their intentions, wishes, and goals.
How can I help? With this, you are not assuming that you know what is best for them, and you believe they know it better than you.
If you are saying yes to this, what are you saying no to? By asking this, you help them think realistically about their choices, without you giving them advice.
What was the most useful to you in our talk? Finally, you are curious about their experience.
Keep a curiosity journal.
Create a habit of taking daily notes about what interest you.
You can use Stainer’s coaching questions as a template to write about any topic you want to be curious about, whether it is an emotion, an idea, a person, a story, a number, or a concept. For example, you are feeling anxious because of the upcoming exam. You can turn this anxiety in a learning opportunity by asking curious questions:
What is in my mind (when I feel anxious)?
What's else is happening in my body when anxiety comes?
What is the one action I can do now in response to my anxiety?
In your journal, beware of the difference between rumination and curiosity. Rumination is when you insist on asking why something happened in the past, often with negative self-judgement. But curiosity is when you ask exploratory questions that aim for understanding and problem-solving. Rumination looks back into the past, curiosity looks at the present onwards.
Add a purpose to things you are repeatedly curious about.
When you are curious, you probably have quite a few interests and things you want to learn. Novelty gives you handsome doses of dopamine. That feels good. But that put you at the peril of your productivity - the ability to get anything done at all. Learning and researching for even more information might be procrastination in disguise.
To avoid this trap, you could define a mission for your curiosity.
If you write notes and review them regularly, after a while, you start to recognize your curious patterns. What are the three or four topics that you always find yourself taking lots and lots of notes about? Pick one topic and sit down to write a note about an outcome you want to achieve with your curious topic.
If you are so excited about Gen AI that your notebook is filled with notes about it, then is there a project or an area that you want to apply what you have learnt about Gen AI? Similarly, if you learn a lot about performance anxiety through your own experience, who could also be benefited from this insight? How can you share your curiosity with others? What outcome do you want them to achieve?
IV. Conclusion
Well-trained, curiosity can be a powerful skill to have.
Start by asking open-ended questions. Dive into topics that intrigue you, even if they seem random. Embrace the unknown and look for new experiences. Read widely—books, articles, anything that catches your eye. Engage with different people and perspectives. Listen attentively and ask more in conversations. The world is brimming with mysteries and knowledge waiting to be explored, so keep that spark alive. Beware of procrastination, distractibility, rumination, and other dark cousins of curiosity, and you will be fine.
What piques your curiosity these days?
That’s it for this week. See you next week.
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