Week 11 - Jayden Szeto - Power of our Curiosity

As we get older and older, there is one thing that is shaping our experiences and actions: curiosity. This isn’t some casual question of “what’s for dinner?” but an underlying desire to question, explore, and understand the world around us.

Whenever I don’t understand something, I generally get very frustrated, which leads me to try to find out the answer to said question. Curiosity is kind of like some open-ended quest, where every question leads to another question and every answer also leads to another question. This is what sends scientists to their labs, and is also what sends us to Google something up. A lot of the time, it's not just about learning something just for the sake of it; a lot of the time, it's about finding out something that no one has ever thought of before. 


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The best part, however, is that curiosity is not just for Einsteins and other smart people. It’s in every single movement of a toddler, a kid trying to learn programming because they think it’s cool, and every what-if that ends up being a late-night conversation. It’s what leads society to advancement, what leads people to want to learn, and what leads babies to grab stuff and stick it into their mouths. 

In today’s world, with Google and Bing and ChatGPT, where answers are just a couple searches away, you’d think that curiosity would be satisfied very quickly. However, that is not the case. With so much power at our fingertips, the challenge at this point is not finding answers, but asking the right questions. It’s not just about finding an answer and then stopping, but challenging it, and finding if there is a better way to do something. That’s what leads to improvement. 

Curiosity also makes life a lot more interesting. I’ve tried so many types of cuisines because I was curious to see what it tasted like, even if my parents or friends did not want to try it. I’ve read so many books where I initially knew nothing about that book, but then ended up reading the entire series and even more books by those authors. I’ve tried so many different sports because I was curious as to which sport I would like best, and I’ve also watched many shows because I heard they were good. Curiosity is less about those big moments, but more about those moments that make you say “huh, cool” that make life interesting.


Comments

  1. Anushka ReddyFebruary 20, 2024 at 11:07 AM

    Hi Jayden! I really enjoyed reading your blog. Your thoughts on curiosity really intrigued me. It's definitely interesting to think about how wanting to know more about things shapes what we do. It's a simple but powerful force that drives us to explore and understand the world around us. Your point about frustration as a motivator to find answers resonates with me – that feeling of not knowing pushes us to seek knowledge and solutions. Curiosity is like an ongoing adventure, like how you described. It is definitely impressive how technology has advanced nowadays, making it much easier to find answers and solutions with a simple click. Overall, your blog was very insightful and interesting. Good job!

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  2. Daniel DavisFebruary 21, 2024 at 9:29 PM

    Hi Jayden, your blog's connection to the current abundance of information is very interesting. Specifically I remember multiple people hypothesizing at the beginning of the monumental advancements in AI that there would be jobs for people that "read AI" in other words, they would learn how to ask questions that would elicit the expected or wanted response from AI. Your blog helps me understand that this process is not just for AI. It can also be used in any situation where our brains collect data. I also appreciate your inclusion of childhood development in the realm of asking questions. I also believe that a child's questions and how the tendency to ask questions is treated is crucial to the development of every child. Curiosity should be encouraged and you even allude to this by suggesting that placing curiosity in favor of sleeping could sometimes be beneficial. I can relate specifically to this point because as a kid I had a bedtime, but my parents were willing to be flexible with this time if we were both intrigued by a certain question.
    I believe your primary audience, people who are currently pursuing their education, is the perfect audience for this topic. If we are constantly on the lookout for more information, we are more likely to be successful in other aspects of schooling. I also appreciated that you included recently popularized ways of learning as well as time worn ways to learn in general and more about oneself. Bing, Chat GPT and other AI tools are likely to be known by your audience, but it is also impactful that you included pastimes like cooking and sports. Specifically with sports there is a well of information relative to the sport that can be learned, but there is also a great deal about oneself that can be learned. Even the idea of a toddler learning to interact with the world shows a different category of learning. This blog showed that curiosity leads to a multitude of outlets that lead to gains in knowledge, thank you!

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  3. Syrine Ben AyedFebruary 21, 2024 at 9:46 PM

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  4. Syrine Ben AyedFebruary 21, 2024 at 9:46 PM

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  5. Syrine Ben AyedFebruary 21, 2024 at 9:49 PM

    Hi Jayden! Your definition of curiosity as a “desire to question, explore, and understand the world around us” deeply resonated with me. Through my involvement in lab research, I have come to understand the importance of curiosity as it forms the basis of science and progress. In its essence, life in itself is a journey fueled by curiosity and a desire to explore the unknown—Whether it be unraveling the unfamiliar on a personal level or exploring the mysteries of our vast world. Curiosity can manifest in interstellar space missions, or perhaps simply in exploring a new field, or traveling the world. Furthermore, I found your insight about taking a step further than a mere search and daring to challenge ideas profound. By doing so, we are able to not only broaden our horizons but also foster a mindset of constant learning and adaptability. It is by cultivating such principles that we allow ourselves to continuously evolve, deepening our understanding in order to pave the way for a brighter future.

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