This Unpopular Type of Curiosity Could Actually Make You A Genius
Lessons learned from Einstein and the Wright brothers.
I have a terrible habit.
It’s weird because I was never even fully conscious of it.
With things not going as well as I expected last year, I realized I’d been doing something wrong.
No, I’m neither a klutz nor a careless person.
It’s quite the opposite, actually.
I’m excellent at following instructions to the letter.
I like exploring and asking questions.
I have taught myself screenwriting, Python, and public speaking, and I’m currently learning a bunch of stuff on my own.
It’s just…I’m not the type of person to fixate on one thing till I get really good at it.
I’m curious about a lot of different things.
I’m always eager to find new information on various topics, but the search has to be fast — quick and dirty, no dilly-dallying.
And then I move on to something else.
It’s just dawning on me that this attitude can be dangerous for actual, genius-level creativity.
You know, the kind that leads you to create mind-blowing innovations that can change the world.
This article will demonstrate how our creativity is often stifled by the tendency to substitute depth with breadth when learning.
Could it be that you’re not as innovative as you’d like to be because you haven’t cultivated the right type of curiosity?
Too easily satisfied
So, what’s this terrible habit I have?
It’s being too easily satisfied. Never being curious enough to mull over a single question consistently till I find the gaps no one else is seeing.
And this has hurt me badly in learning.
I have become the epitome of ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’.
And the downside of this is that on a surface level, I know how to do a lot of things.
Yet I haven’t quite reached the point where I can benefit much from all the knowledge and skills.
Are you also too easily satisfied?
I think the problem most of us have is not that we don’t ask questions.
No, the actual issue is that we choose to be satisfied with shallow answers.
Then it’s on to the next.
This kind of fleeting desire to know new things is called diversive curiosity.
Research shows that people with high diversive curiosity are information seekers.
What they tend to do, though, is to seek information about loosely related content. [1]
A bit of this and a slice of that, creating a hodgepodge of random interests and knowledge.
And don’t get me wrong, diversive curiosity isn’t bad.
It is what drives you to go searching for information in the first place. [2]
Just think about it:
When you’re trying to figure out what subjects to learn or what problems to solve with a business, you need to search broadly and quickly.
But you need to go a step further for mastery and genius-level creativity.
What geniuses do is that they pick one idea, question, or goal and keep drilling down, obsessively, till they find a breakthrough.
This is called specific curiosity.
This helps a person move from a less creative initial idea to a more creative, innovative final idea.
As long as you only learn things broadly, you only have access to what everyone else is aware of.
You barely scratch the surface.
However, drill a little deeper and you strike gold.
Curiosity that makes the cat creative
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” — Albert Einstein
Specific curiosity thrives on the need to reduce uncertainty and master a subject.
It’s marked by an intense desire to find an explanation for an experience or phenomenon. [3,4]
It’s like solving a puzzle.
Only that with specific curiosity, you end up with more than you bargained for: a solution grater than the puzzle itself.
That’s how even “ordinary” people can generate revolutionary ideas that turn the world downside up.
I would argue that for Einstein to spend eight hard years working on the general theory of relativity, he must’ve been had a truckload of specific curiosity.
To get to the point where you’re creating something awesome and novel, you need to have dwelt on that narrow topic for quite a bit.
The Wright brothers probably knew this secret.
They started with trying to solve the puzzle of a human flight using a flying bicycle. And that search morphed into something even fancier.
Orville and Wilbur Wright persisted from an incredulous idea to solving the elusive flight control problem.
A practical guide to cultivating specific curiosity
1. Choose your puzzle
It’s hard to focus on just one thing for too long.
It could get boring.
But the subject matter makes all the difference.
Choosing a subject you’re naturally curious about makes delving deeper more fulfilling.
In my case, I’ve always learned new skills on my own, without ever consciously knowing how or why I’ve been successful.
Now, the more I explore the science and psychology of self-learning, the more curious I become.
The ideas keep leading me down a trail with an unknown destination.
And that makes me giddy with excitement.
Find something that makes you a little bit bouncier than usual.
And start asking questions and collecting ideas.
2. Be an idea ‘hoarder’
Ever met a pack rat?
This is a word I learned recently, and I’ve found it to be an accurate description of people I know: someone who loves to collect things and hates to get rid of them.
No, I don’t recommend cluttering up your living space with junk.
But when it comes to ideas, this is actually the way to go.
You want to keep track of ideas that come to mind in relation to your puzzle of interest.
No matter how farfetched they may seem, you need them for idea linking.
Idea linking means building on your original ideas to the point where they become profound and even unrecognizable.
The Wright brothers went from a flying bicycle to an airplane by making use of this same process.
Your old ideas may be silly, but write them down anyway.
They can be the fuel for a brilliant concept that has never been conceptualized by others.
Choose to persist when researching and gathering ideas related to your puzzle, even if it looks like you’ve hit a dead end.
To do:
- Keep a small idea notepad handy at all times for random ideas.
- Schedule periods to meditate and scatter your attention.
- Perform exhaustive research on your initial ideas and keep adding new and related ones
3. Retain and refine ideas
Read your old notes and journal entries.
I’m saying this to myself more than to anyone else.
It’s amazing how many valuable ideas I’ve found hidden in my journal entries from high school.
Maybe I would’ve taken action on them sooner if I had a routine that made me go back to check them.
Writing is only half the job.
Going back to those ideas and notes gives you opportunities to add new perspectives and implement those ideas.
So try not to skip that.
Quick notes for your highlights:
- Specific curiosity, unlike diversive curiosity, leads you to learn deeper instead of broader.
- To cultivate specific curiosity, practice idea linking, where you write down your initial ideas and build on them constantly to form new ideas.
- Always retain and review old ideas as a trove of inspiration for innovation.
In May, I will begin a free newsletter series called “DIY Learning,” where I write about how to learn anything effectively and productively, on your own terms.
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References
- Lydon-Staley, D. M., Zhou, D., Blevins, A. S., Zurn, P., & Bassett, D. S. (2019). Hunters, busybodies, and the knowledge network building associated with curiosity.
- Gross, M. E., Zedelius, C. M., & Schooler, J. W. (2020). Cultivating an understanding of curiosity as a seed for creativity. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 35, 77–82.
- Litman, J. A., & Jimerson, T. L. (2004). The measurement of curiosity as a feeling of deprivation. Journal of personality assessment, 82(2), 147–157.
- Hagtvedt, L. P., Dossinger, K., Harrison, S. H., & Huang, L. (2019). Curiosity made the cat more creative: Specific curiosity as a driver of creativity. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 150, 1–13.
