Unstoppable Love (Pt 5): Curiosity
“Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”
When I was younger I didn’t place much value on curiosity because I thought that I understood how things worked. The world made sense. I had it in a box. I knew that what I believed was true because I experienced it… I saw it with my own eyes. If I encountered something that contradicted my understanding of the world, I weighed the evidence and made adjustments as necessary.
Somewhere along the timeline of my life, as I entered my 60s, I had an epiphany — a question that jolted my world: What if my biases where distorting my view of reality? What if there were limitations to my viewpoint? As a scientist, I am fully aware of the problem of “confirmation bias” when doing research. This happens when I take a stand and then try to gather information that confirms my theory. For example, if I set up an experiment to “prove” that termites eat wood by looking only at wood, I will completely miss the fact that they also eat materials such as paper, plastic, and drywall. There might be drywall that has been destroyed but I may not see it at all because I wasn’t looking for it. Even worse, if I do see it, I might dismiss it as irrelevant observation.
It never occurred to me that my perception of the life I was experiencing could be impacted by a confirmation bias. I see what I want to see. It happens to all of us.
The plot thickens because I don’t even know what I don’t know.
So, what can we do about our distorted and limited viewpoint? We can improve the depth of our understanding by combining proximity and empathy. Coming alongside others who are different than we are with a desire to connect at the heart allows us to have greater depth perception. Cultivate an insatiable curiosity and your world becomes more fascinating, textured, and rewarding. Ask questions? Lots of questions. Listen not to respond but to learn. The 3, 2, 1, 0 interview technique can be extremely helpful:
3 words: “Tell me more.”
2 words: “What else?”
1 word: “And???”
0 words: use gestures to dig deeper.
A worthy life goal: Be insatiably curious.
What are some of your thoughts? I’m curious.