Curious, George?
EPISODE 055: CURIOUS, GEORGE?
Einstein's brain was stolen, and subsequently studied. What did it reveal about his genius and creativity? Not much. Certainly not as much as Einstein himself did when he said, "I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious." What has curiosity got to do with your creativity and how can it be honed or nurtured? Let's talk about it.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
Among the many, many moments to which I look back on my childhood with wonder (mostly wonder at how I wasn't thrown to the wolves by the adults in my life) I recall an incident in Grade 10 math class. I was not exactly a star student. And, to be fair to a younger me, nor was my teacher a star teacher. His name was Mr. Gold. George Gold. He smelled vaguely of expired goat yoghurt. He was getting near retirement and I think his patience with kids my age had worn thin by many years, and he was always riding me about my attitude, which as you might imagine, did nothing for my attitude except encourage it in a dark direction. Eventually Mr Gold and I would reach an impasse and he promised not to flunk me out of math if, for my part, I would acknowledge the very clear writing on the wall as to my mathematical delinquency and promise never to take advanced math, and therefore one of his classes, ever again. It was a deal I gladly took. His willingness to set me free, I think, had something to do with an episode earlier that year in which he had asked me why I had done something, and so exasperated by the constant questioning, I simply replied, "Why? Curious, George?"
Wow. Not cool, duChemin. I told you they should have thrown me to the wolves. So what does this have to do with you and your creative life? Probably nothing at all, but I've been trying to come up with a way to talk about the importance of curiosity to the creative process and how to cultivate that curiosity, and I still can't hear the word 'curious' without thinking about George, either the math teacher or the monkey, and if I don't get this episode started somehow, it's just never going to to happen. I'm David duChemin, and this is Episode 055 of A Beautiful Anarchy, welcome here.
Music / Intro
When Albert Einstein died of an abdominal aortic aneurysm on April 18, 1955, his body, according to his wishes, was meant to be cremated and and his ashes scattered in secret. Thomas Harvey, the pathologist at Princeton Hospital had other plans, and rather than let Einstein's astonishing mind rest in well-deserved peace, he cut his head open and stole his brain. It is also said he took the eyeballs, which are rumoured now to sit in a safety deposit box somewhere in New York City. But it's not his eyes for which Einstein is celebrated, perhaps if he'd been a famous photographer we'd have been more interested and kept better track of them. But his brain! That amazing source of some of the most important ideas of the 20th century, it was cut into some 240 pieces, and stored in 2 jars in Thomas Harvey's basement, which was now in Philadelphia after Harvey was understandably fired from Princeton Hospital and had to go elsewhere in search of work. Eventually Harvey ends up in Wichita, Kansas, and Einstein went with him, kept ignominiously in a cider box hidden under a beer cooler in a closet.
Those are the good parts of the story. Eventually slices of Einstein's brain get studied and, depending on what you read, it all seems to come to a rather anti-climactic end: it turns out Einstein's brain really wasn't that special. There were some peculiarities, and I admit to going a little cross-eyed reading the science on this stuff, but the studies weren't exactly systematic, as you might expect from a pathologist on the run who kept his samples under a beer cooler, and none of them seem to conclude with any real eureka moments about why Einstein was such a genius.
I think Einstein himself gave us the answers in life better than his brain seems to have done in death, when he said, "I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious." But search for quotes from Einstein on curiosity and you'll find others, among them the admonition to "never lose a holy curiosity" and the insistence that curiosity, or in some versions of the quote, imagination, is more important than knowledge. “The important thing," Einstein said, "is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
In other words, it might not have been the structure of his brain that mattered and made him the creative and innovative force that we was, but rather the structure of his thoughts. It was what he did with that brain that made it special. Einstein credited curiosity for leading him to his ideas and discoveries, and he begged us to never stop questioning.
So what is curiosity, what does it contribute to our creativity and how do we nurture it, especially as adults when it might have been a very long time since, as a child, the adults in your life told you to stop asking so many questions?
Depending on whom you ask, curiosity is either a quality, instinct, emotion, habit, or a learned skill. I'm comfortable with it being all of these things. What is common in all the definitions I read is that it is aroused by gaps in what we know and the desire to account for why things are different, incongruent, or not understood. It is the why behind asking questions like 'why?' and 'what if?' and the impulse to find answers. When we are kids we are very curious, not only because there is so much we don't know, but because we're so very aware of that missing information. Why is the sky blue? Why did my goldfish die? Where do babies come from? Why does it rain? Endless whys and hows and whens and wheres.
But I think as we get older we put a premium on the answers to these questions rather than the questions themselves. We get taught that knowing is better than not knowing and the horrible irony of this is that the not knowing on which curiosity is based becomes a source of shame. We learn to be quiet about what we don't know. We learn not to admit it for fear of appearing foolish. As soon as we're able we abandon the beginner's mind in favour or looking smart. We begin to make assumptions that go unquestioned, and I suspect as we get older these unchallenged assumptions, because they've worked so far and haven't been upended, they solidify, raise fewer questions, and soon we're just less and less aware of the gaps in our information.
Curiosity seeks the gaps.
When I started this episode it was curiosity about curiosity itself that led me to search for articles about curiosity. What were other people saying about it, what priority were companies placing on it, how was it encouraged in children, to what innovations did it lead? It was this that lead me to the quotes from Einstein, that led me to ask Google some questions about his brain, that led me to the fascinating story about his death and the unexpected post-mortem adventures of his brain.
If creativity is the connection of previously unconnected dots, then curiosity is the habit or impulse to collect those dots. it's the habit of questioning everything. It is the return to a beginner's mind, and the resumption of what we were so good at as children, the un-self-conscious asking of why and how and where, when and what? Curiosity, especially among adults in whom this appetite is often suppressed in formal education, is the hunger for more dots.
Why this matters is because those dots are the raw materials. More ideas. More pieces of seemingly unrelated information, more skills, more experiences. The more curious we are the more we seek those, and look for the connections between them. And, man, what a time to be alive and curious! This morning alone I have already asked Google over 20 questions. Google in turn has led me to the Harvard Business Review, National Geographic, a site about the origin of words, a medical journal detailing Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms, Wikipedia, YouTube, Nova, Discovery Magazine, and several sites specializing in childhood psychology. I have gone down rabbit holes I never imagined, and found unexpected connections and almost no though, idea, or story that has become part of this episode was something I knew a week ago because up to that point I just didn't have the raw materials. What I had was questions.
I don't know where we really got the expression "curiosity killed the cat" though don't think for a minute that I didn't spend 30 minutes or so digging around the internet for answers about that. I was hoping I'd find a great anecdote or some really clear source around which I might pivot. I didn't. But I think it's time we gave it up, not only for the sake of cats everywhere, but for the sake of our creative lives. We need curiosity and efforts to squelch it risk extinguishing important sparks. Sparks of innovation and new ideas in technology, the arts, and other fields too. Virology comes to mind. And as a society we need people asking more questions, not fewer. We need to stop assuming everything we read is true, and become curious enough to dig for answers and explore sources if, for example, we're going to have the tools to fight the misinformation in which we're drowning. I can't count the emails I've been forwarded that could have been source-checked and debunked long before they got to me, if the senders had been a little more curious and asked, "is this true?" or "where did this come from?" True, curiosity is not the only necessary skill, it's important we learn to be critical thinkers, but asking more questions and being less willing to accept the first answers that come our way would be a better start than just being pacified by information that confirms our biases.
Creatively speaking, curiosity leads to the expansion of the paintbox. In the last episode of A Beautiful Anarchy, called Adapting to the Paintbox, I encouraged you to consider the powerful notion of constraints, and working with what we've got. But it is also true that we can, metaphorically, make our paintboxes larger, and give ourselves, over time, more to work with. Curiosity is the hunger for new ideas, new experiences, and new skills. It's what compels us to restlessly seek new raw materials and to expand the tools available to work our materials in new ways, no matter what your craft.
So how do we nurture a holy curiosity? How do make it a habit? I think it begins with getting more comfortable with the gaps in our knowledge and not only admitting they might be there, but seeking them. Like the Queen in Alice in Wonderland who practiced believing in six impossible things before breakfast, I think it's possible to practice saying "I don't know" through out the day and seeing in that not a statement of some deficiency, but an opportunity to discover, to find out, to be curious. The mind that isn't always trying to be the smartest in the room is the one that is most open to learning.
Of course it takes more than an awareness of what we don't know to nurture and hone our curiosity. Sakichi Toyoda, the king of Japanese inventors and the grandfather of Toyota Motor Corporation, had a way of pursuing his curiosity that has been enshrined as the 5 Whys. For any problem he faced he would ask 'Why?' five times. Each time he got an answer he would drill down deeper and the questioning would help clarify the problem and suggest solutions. I've adopted my own version of the 5 Whys that allows for other questions, like How, but the principle is valuable: asking more questions and deeper questions helps us get past the obvious and identify our assumptions. Because it is so often the case that we don't know what we don't know, it usually takes more than one or two questions to really get there. Want to hone your curiosity? Ask deeper questions, and more of them.
The habits of the curious extend beyond a willingness to ask endless questions. Curious people expose themselves to new and divergent ideas. They read broadly and deep. But not everyone is a reader, and while I don't pretend to understand how you can live a life not surrounded by books, it might be that you are more engaged by podcasts, documentaries, and YouTube videos. Curious people open themselves to a wealth of influences and inputs. As you can imagine, this takes time. I think you have to make time for curiosity. New ideas, new skills, and new experiences, to be meaningful to those of us with limits on our time, probably have to displace other activities. One of the benefits of my leaving social media a few months ago is the sudden availability of larger blocks of time in which to read and learn, to collect more questions and follow those questions where they lead.
I'm sure some people are born more naturally curious than others. Some are probably born differently curious as well. But I'm also certain that curiosity can be encouraged and honed, or it can be discouraged and dulled. You're probably not alone if you're thinking you're not that curious, but asking more questions is not a talent, it's a habit and anyone can become more aware of the assumptions they make without questioning them. Anyone can ask why and how and fire up the Google in search of missing pieces that might fit the gaps in what we thought we knew. Anyone can embrace the defiance needed to reject the voices that once told us to stop asking so many questions, and take back wonder of being a kid in search of answers to all the many things we don't understand.
I want to end by going back to one more quote from Einstein and then let the great Stephen Hawking pronounce the benediction. Einstein said “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.” Years later, like an echo, here's Hawking: “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up.” Einstein and Hawking, two of the most creative thinkers of our lifetime, seemed to place a great deal of value on what we don't know. Curious, isn't it?
Thank you so much for joining me today. Creating this podcast has become one of the great joys and challenges of my creative life, especially these days and I think I would shrivel up if I didn’t have you to make it for. If you’ve got a moment and your podcast app allows you to do so I’d be so grateful if you would take a moment to leave a review and to share this with someone you think might find encouragement in these episodes . If you’re not already getting it, I would love to send you On The Make which is like an an emailed version of the podcast that I send out every four weeks when the podcast itself takes a break. Just go to StartUglyBook.com scroll to the bottom and tell me where to send it. And if this or any episode lights a spark for you and you want to get in touch with me you can email me anytime at talkback@abeautifulanarchy.com. Thanks agian for joining me, we’ll talk soon. In the meantime, go make something beautiful.
Music in this episode: Acid Jazz (Kevin Macleod) / CC BY-SA 3.0