Albert Einstein: "I Have no Special Talent. I am only Passionately Curious"

Albert Einstein: Exploring your curiosity can be incredibly good for your mind

Desire to know something

Given that the dictionary definition of curiosity is “the desire to know something”, it may be of little surprise that much research has concerned its benefits for education. Using questionnaires that ask people how much they desire new information and consider novel problems, various studies have shown that people’s curiosity can predict their academic success, independently of IQ.

The most recent research suggests that the benefits of learning may arise from changes at a neurological level. When we feel curious about a subject, the facts that we are studying become more deeply encoded, and more accessible when they are later needed.

According to two psychologists, Jordan Litman and Paul Silvia, there are two types of Curiosity. They published a paper on this in 2006 listing what they called “I-curiosity” and “D-curiosity.” The first one stands for “interest” – the hunger for knowledge, and it is a curiosity that gives us pleasant feelings. Learning something offers its own satisfaction. It is not necessarily driven by a desire to find specific information or fill a gap in our knowledge base – we don’t know that there is a gap. It is the pure pleasure of finding something new. Usually, it is just a tiny little nugget of information that opens the door to a place we have never visited. It is a great feeling, and I am sure that we will need a lot of Curiosity in the Design Thinking process to uncover different aspects of the problem we want to solve. Think about children. They are natural Design Thinkers. They constantly ask Why? Why? Why? driving parents crazy. They use the “I-curiosity.”

The other Curiosity is not that pleasant – the “D” stands for “depravation” – the information gap that puts us in the restless, “oh I need to know it right away” state. In his very intriguing book Unwinding Anxiety, Judson Brewer gives this example of the second type of curiosity: think about a moment when in a conversation someone mentions a movie and a famous actress… what was her name? You know her. You feel her name is at the tip of your tongue. You think that it starts with the letter “s” and yet, you don’t remember. It’s like trying to squeeze the information out of your brain. You will not be able to concentrate on doing anything else until you get her name. Even hours later, this restless feeling will not go away.

Never Stop Exploring. Choose to be Curious.

The “D-curiosity” is all about the destination. “I-curiosity” is about the journey, and the Design Thinking process is very much a journey to observe but also experience the roots of the problem in question.

The physicist Richard Feynman may have put it best when he said: “Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.” And with the proven benefits for your learning, creativity, and general well-being, you may be pleasantly surprised where this new-found curiosity eventually leads you.

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