On Intellectual Curiosity

Jul 7, 2012 • Paul Singh

I used to carpool to elementary school with a classmate that lived nearby. I remember only one thing from all those years: her dad would tell me anything I wanted to know as long as I asked a question. (Mr. Clayton, where are you these days anyways?)I went to a small private school and was generally OK with being “the nerd” around my neighborhood. I’m a terribly slow learner when it comes to traditional classroom instruction, but I’m a sponge when someone answers a question of mine — more importantly, I love learning stuff on my own. I like scratching my own itch. It’s probably not the most efficient way to learn something new, but it’s worked pretty well for me.

I’ve met a lot of people over the past few months and I’m starting to realize something: you can’t teach intellectual curiosity. You might be able to inspire or briefly encourage it, but you can’t force people to be genuinely interested in learning new things.