Curiosity

Curious...
A couple of years ago, during my annual performance review with my manager, we were discussing some of the different things I liked and disliked about the working environment. One of things I noted was that I was perplexed as to why a segment of the engineering staff always wanted to be sent to training to learn new technologies while the other staff did NOT want to be sent to training. Both groups wanted to learn the technology in question (Javascript) but some felt that it was better to go to a formal class while others wanted to learn on their own.


Wash, Rinse, Repeat
The thing that stuck out in my mind was not the differences in learning styles (both are valid) but rather that the majority of folks who wanted to be sent to the class seemed to be missing a natural curiosity about the topic. Curiosity is something that I value highly in others around me; it is what drives them to ask questions and thus drives me to ask other questions. The answers often raise other questions, which leads into a neat cycle of learning. Curiosity leads to questions, questions lead to answers, answers lead to knowledge, and knowledge leads to curiosity.

An Example
Last year, my curiosity led me to an interesting place. Normally content in the technology / software / hardware areas, I stumbled across a reference to an article in the Harvard Business Review. As I read the article (it happened to be about a specific approach to innovation), I became interested in learning more about related topics such as R&D strategies, budgeting and scheduling when the task is not clearly defined, and more. The cycle of curiosity had taken me in an entirely new direction, and I have benefited from the knowledge gained in both my personal and professional lives.

Nurture It
Although I think I was a naturally curious person previously, that experience demonstrated to me the importance of curiosity. I think it is important to find the answer to some question each day. Many people make a point of walking or running on a regular basis to keep their body in shape. Learning is exercise for the mind, and as such I don't think it is important if the knowledge gained from the answer is immediately useful or not - the benefit is the mental exercise. It's almost a bonus that in doing this, you know more than you did previously. Even better, there is virtually no downside - no one ever threw their back out by reading a book (except my friend Bill, but I digress...).

So what have you learned recently?