What Are You Curious About?

These are some doodles from a professional session where we were looking at our school board’s perspectives on “modern learning.” All learners are, or should be, curious about what they are learning about. This seems like a given, and hopefully all classrooms give kids things to be curious about.

All learners, adult and child alike, should be regularly checking in with themselves about their learning. The fancy word for that is “metacognition”, but let’s just call it “checking in.” Check in with your own self about your curiosity.

What am I curious about right now?

What can I do to satisfy that curiosity?

What resources, books, or videos will help me?

Staying curious at work or school is not easy: the pace, tone and content is generally set by your employer or teacher. Find something to be curious about, even if it’s a small thing.

Curiosity is the solution to boredom. Boredom, in small doses, is a very good thing. It leads to curiosity. Perhaps you are sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon. You look out the window and feel a small tweak of curiosity.

Go forth and be curious!

As a child, I wanted to learn about chess, so my grandfather took me to the used book store and bought me ten books about chess. That is the “all in” mentality of curiosity. Go all in. Watch 22 YouTube videos about the topic you are interested in. Sign up for a course on Coursera or EdX to learn about that topic. Listen to 12 hours of true crime podcasts if that small tweak of curiosity is about true crime stories.

Be curious, and stay curious. You might hear that beer ad guy in your head:

Stay curious, my friend.

Curiosity is a subtle pinprick of a feeling. Let it in. It won’t wash over you like a wave, like anger or sadness are likely to do. It won’t lift you off the ground, like joy. It’s a small feeling that leads to learning. Curiosity has never been more easily satisfied. I used to just pluck loads and loads of library books off the shelves when I got curious. Now I have that, my Medium feed, my Flipboard feed, Twitter, YouTube, and many other things.

Our younger curious selves are jealous of us right now. I am currently incredibly curious about mathematics. Once in a while I try to read papers or textbooks to teach myself new things.

My Bitcoin curiosity has led to hours of learning. Bitcoin: what is that, anyway? You can find out. Let your curiosity lead.

You could keep a curiosity list. Let’s phrase it in the form of wonderings. Here are some.

Current Curiosity List, As Of This Moment

I wonder how algebraic topology works?

I wonder if I can teach myself enough set theory to read math papers?

I wonder if there are new apps to help with guitar chords, rhythm, etc.?

I wonder if Bitcoin will hit $20 0000 soon?

I wonder if Luke Skywalker is the Last Jedi?

This last is answered easily enough, and pleasurably, involves going to a movie to find out. Consider keeping a curiosity list. Stay curious, or rather, let your curiosity back in to your life.