louisgray.com - Latest Comments in louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

paulina — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:33:26 -0000

I haven't realized that people like you actually exsist. I thought that I was a super freak absorbing and reading, finding out things whenever I could. At one point I've stopped and couldn't care less about the world, because my parents don't do anything at all, and question every single thing I do. Everytime I draw, read, write something or I'm trying to learn a new skill they ask me stupid questions and I can't be bother then...
Everytime I go somewhere with my mum, I pick up the Times, or National Geographic, read an article about some nuclear weapons or trees in America, and my mum has her eyes glued to a broken marriage celebrity page. I try to start a conversation in a car on a way back home, but I always shut up after a minute or two because I know they don't care. My dad keeps being silent, my mum talks rubbish and my brother is sitting next to me pissed at his nintendo...
He's only eight, but looks like a grave digger and has an odd sense of humor, he's doesn't seem to be interested in anything at all, so I try to encourage him to do something and try out new things. He's a type of person that finds it hard to occupy himself, he needs someone to play with from time to time. It took me a while to kick of his intellectual curiosity, and now he's doing 5 things at a time, and keeps asking me all this random questions about the world and doesn't seem o get enough. And instead of Nintendo and ps2 he picks up a book in the evening and wants to learn how to play chess. I had to show him that it's really exciting and be more possitive so that he can get into the mood.
I think that everyone posses intellectual curiosity, but we just don't use at times. It really depends on the cirumstances and I think that everyone should encourage others to learn new things. I find most of my classmates very narrow minded and stupid...they only care about their country an have no interest of what goes on around thw world.How can they live like that ?

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

julian — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:04:09 -0000

hanni
i am 25, and have a great thirst for information from all channels. I consider myself a generalist as opposed to a specialist. this is difficult due to being in medical school, where i could excel if it wasn't for my curiosity of other things. but my question for you is this. what are the tools or things available that you wish you would have done when you were 20, so that i can do it now"? thanks

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Stuart Miniman — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:22:00 -0000

Great article - some people just can't get excited about anything. This has great applicability that not everyone will be agog about social media and also as a parent I look to encourage those places where there is curiosity.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Debra — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:22:38 -0000

Well if it only comes from Mom and Dad a lot of people like me would have ended up less like me and more like Mom and Dad. I read everything while I never saw either of my parents ever read more than the local newspaper.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Adam Bossy — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:03:08 -0000

Touche on the comment about the Baseball Encyclopedia. As a kid, I pored over this thing tirelessly. I would literally sit on the floor of my living room during the summer and simply study it. I would randomly ponder over random facts at inopportune times, like, "how many hits did Ty Cobb have his rookie year and how did that compare to his other seasons?"

To answer your question, I think that intellectual curiosity is spawned from knowing that knowledge is power, and the thirst for power hence leads to curiousity, albeit in indirect ways.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Mia D — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:58:26 -0000

Great post, Louis!
Nurturing intellectual curiosity is probably easier in children than adults. Children are like sponges and it helps to expose them to a wide variety of ideas and thoughts. That being said, how much of it is nature vs. nurture is highly debatable. I like to think both play a role.
As far as folks who come to you for blog picks, I have to confess I am one of them. Twitter, Friendfeed, and other social tools have made it easy for us to be consumers of a wide variety of information. However, they've also overwhelmed us and made us more lazy because so much information comes to us, rather than us having to go out and seek it.
I tend to surround myself with folks (online and offline) who are voracious consumers of information and I rely on them to filter out the noise. That doesn't mean I don't seek out content myself using Google Reader or other tools, but given there's so much information out there, it helps to have additional filters in the form of recommendations from credible folks like yourself.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

hanni — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:25:46 -0000

wow.. this is an issue which i really really thought about a lot lately. i'm far away from having children, but i see all kind of younger people all around me who totally lack that curiosity component which i deem absolutely necessary, no matter what you're doing in your life.

i'm now 30, and i often think about all the possibilities i'd have had if i had all those tools available today at my disposal back when i was 20. but now i barely see any people of that age using for instance rss; my life quality would totally drop without that! they're playing stupid games on facebook, writing birthday wall posts and - at least something! - producing some status updates. and when they're not on fb, they're watching youtube or are chatting on msn.. no thirst for anything new! no curiousity!

then everyone makes jokes about me having far too much spare time because of my high level of activity on different channels; difficult to make them understand that it's only my high efficiency when it comes up to gathering and disseminating information.. i explain to them that i'm totally addicted to information, that i've no problem to "connect" the different information channels, to "think connected".. different to explain..

ps: i'm living in austria, things might almost certainly be a little bit different here compared to the states..

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Ricky Peterson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:22:52 -0000

Beside looking for news, internet also make us to earn more money. As we know, there is thousand people make they website or blog and dedicated their blog with some ads.

Ricky

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

TalkDebbie — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:01:56 -0000

Louis - thank you for a wonderful post. One of the core values at our firm is curiosity. I'm always shocked that people choose to make a career in our industry and lack what I think is a fundamental component of marketing - curiosity. How can I know an employee will go the extra mile if they don't have it? I can't teach it. It's inborn. So I try my best during the interview process to ferret it out, measure it and see if they have enough to succeed.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Brandon — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:55:59 -0000

guess I was apeaking to Maggie's criterion B and a little of C

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Brandon — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:53:45 -0000

I've slowly managed to coax that curiosity in a good friend of mine, but it's taken a couple of years of sending strong ignorance isn't cool vibes his way to play against his ego.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Maggie — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:50:33 -0000

Like you I am an absolute fanatic information gatherer and like you I get sooooo frustrated when my teachers tells me that I am on another planet, so I totally relate to this post!

In my experience, people only get curious when it involves...
a) some kind of scandel or celebrity
b) a direct impact on their very existance
c) something that they can practically use (here and now)

So to teach curiosity maybe we need to hook onto these three, but that then brings another question:
How do you encourage enduring curiosity?

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Shawn K — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:19:22 -0000

That's one of the things I love about you, you're an information junkie, just like me. I was often bored in school, as I'd always read ahead, then sit there as the teacher covered the 'new' material and answered questions.

It bugs me that people don't strive to know all they can about their chosen field of work, as I try to learn all I can about mine, theirs, and their best friend's. Keep the info coming, I'm anxious to absorb it.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Chris Kenton — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:40:33 -0000

No doubt there's a component of Nature to it, but I think there's also a significant part that Nurturing plays. My wife is a librarian, and was passionate about reading aloud to my son even back when she was pregnant. Hardly a day has not gone by that we haven't read aloud before going to bed, or a week without bringing home a stack of books from the library. My son's now in second grade and reads more than I do. Saturday mornings, instead of turning on cartoons, which is what I grew up with, he curls up on the couch with Tintin or non-fiction books about his favorite subject, theTitanic.

I think you can instill a passion for curiosity. But I think you have to start young, I think you have to model it, and you have to be willing to support what your children are naturally interested in.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Michael Sean Wright — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:34:01 -0000

Louis,

I'm reminded of Bill Hicks explaining his U.F.O. tour - "I'm appearing in small towns doubting my own existence."

Your "curiosity" has led me to many wonderful Universes of Discovery.

I, for one, enjoy your insatiable appetite for knowledge.

There is a reason you are considered an - "aLister"

Thank you for your hunger.

Bon Appétit,

A Listener

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Guest — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:29:48 -0000

Curiosity is about finding the truth - Who, what and why. It is not something you are born, it is some thing that is nurtured as a culture. Arrogance and Rules on thinking forces boundaries. Facts and inventions are a facet of curiosity but ultimate curiosity is knowing your self - Atma. i.e you reached nirvana.

P.S Phoenician to Greek, Egyptian don't have alphabets they are pictographs - It is Indians who invented language -i.e Alphabets and grammar. Check your Wikipedia - your encyclopedia does not have gigabytes.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Dave Hodson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:25:00 -0000

God knows George Bush's Dad tried - it never did take

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Anne Bouey — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:14:00 -0000

LG, they are just using all their senses to exercise their curiosity. Keep it up!

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

j1m — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:49:00 -0000

A: Provide positive feedback when you see it.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Louis Gray — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:43:00 -0000

Anne, at this point, all I know is that Sarah and Matthew think the iPhone (with its leather case) is the most awesome thing to chew and suck on. They also dig the TiVo remote and reaching for the laptop whenever possible. And during reading time, Sarah would rather grab the book so I have to keep it at a full arm's length.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

Anne Bouey — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:27:00 -0000

"It's the same type of frustrations I am sure parents feel when their kids don't get interested in school, or in studying to improve when you know they have the potential." Although you can't force intellectual curiosity in someone, I'm confident that you are already encouraging it in Matthew and Sarah and providing them with many opportunities to develop it even now.

Re: louisgray.com: How Can You Teach Intellectual Curiosity?

VMaryAbraham — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:11:21 -0000

Louis:

According to Johnson O'Connor and the Strengthsfinder/Gallup data, there are people who are born wired to crave new ideas and new information. It sounds like you're a member of that lucky group. I'm not sure this can be induced in others to the same degree. However, we should as a society try to instill a basic love of learning in children. That ought to be the whole point of early education.

- Mary