How curiosity can supercharge your brain and boost your success

Curiosity tin boost representation and creativity for sharper thinking, yet it tin besides pb to distraction and procrastination. The instrumentality is to cognize erstwhile and however to usage it

Mind 12 October 2022

By Dan Jones

Adam Nickel

DURING an icy April successful 1626, Francis Bacon, philosopher and a pioneer of the technological method, was riding done the snowy streets of London erstwhile a funny question popped into his mind: would the acold assistance sphere a dormant chicken? After acquiring 1 from a adjacent household, helium acceptable astir stuffing the vertebrate with snow. In the process, helium caught a chill, rapidly followed by pneumonia and death.

This perchance apocryphal story, dispersed by philosopher Thomas Hobbes, points to 2 faces of curiosity: 1 a virtue, the different a vice. Curiosity is the driving unit down science, exploration and discovery, successful which signifier it has been arsenic important successful our species’ occurrence arsenic our intelligence. Curiosity tin besides beryllium a boon to america individually, guiding america into passionate, purpose-filled lives – deliberation of relentlessly funny radical similar Leonardo da Vinci.

But “the lust of the mind”, arsenic Hobbes dubbed curiosity, turns vice-like erstwhile it leads america to discarded clip connected clickbait and fake news, doomscroll done societal media feeds oregon pursuit dangerously utmost experiences, similar jumping from gangly objects with a parachute, simply due to the fact that we privation to cognize what they consciousness like. It tin extremity badly. Just callback the infamous, now-deceased cat.

In a modern satellite awash with galore specified diversions, it would beryllium bully to cognize however to marque the astir of our curiosity portion avoiding its pitfalls. Recent probe connected the double-edged quality of curiosity is riding to the rescue. The enactment hasn’t lone shed airy connected its galore benefits for learning and creativity, but besides connected the reasons that it tin pb america astray – and wherefore we …