Are You Curious?

Ever wonder what it means to be curious? Nowadays, it seems to be more of (yet another) a buzz word you find in your performance reviews. Why? We seem to associate curiosity with being self-motivated. It is a means to convey one of those intangible things that you can’t really define but know IT when you SEE IT. More to the point, you know IT when you HAVE IT.

Some of you reading this will know immediately what I am talking about. Here’s a little example. When I was about 10 years old, I suddenly was struck by this intense desire to find out how the lock in the front door worked. Somehow, I inherited a mechanical aptitude from my ancestors, but THAT is a topic for another day. I found a day and time when Dad wasn’t around, and somehow got it out of the door and onto the dining room table where I dissected it with the nimble hands of a brain surgeon.

Curiosity Almost Killed the Cat

The “surgery” was going well when suddenly, the mechanism exploded, and little pieces flew all over the table. That is when I LEARNED there was some sort of trick to taking these things apart. At that moment all I could do was imagine the beating I would get if Dad found out. So, I quickly found as many of the little pieces as I could and shoved them back into place. Given the design of a lock mechanism, not knowing exactly where all the pieces were originally makes proper reassembly as easy as solving a Rubik’s cube with one hand while blindfolded. With a huge sigh of relief, I got everything “back together” before Dad got home.

Late that evening, Dad came home and found his key was mysteriously not working. After a few minutes of cursing and loud banging on the door (for us long in the tooth, the visual here is Fred Flintstone pounding on the door after the cat locks him out), my Mom let him in. The next day a truck magically pulled up in front of the house with the word “LOCKSMITH” painted on the side. I had no idea what a locksmith was, all I knew is that Dad’s key worked again, and I used one of my 9 lives.

What does that have to do with anything? EVERYTHING. I never read a book or saw a TV show or ever even talked about locks with anyone. That burning desire to LEARN how the thing worked was just there. My parents and Grandparents would tell me years later that I was one of THOSE kids that left a trail of once perfectly working things in various states of disassembly even in my earlier childhood.

The Eternal Flame of LEARNING

That flame of burning curiosity and LEARNING never went out. It got worse as the years wore on and I LEARNED more about how things worked. I read technical manuals voraciously. If only there was YouTube back in the 60’s and 70’s <sigh>. I LEARNED how to do all sorts of things: rebuild engines, paint cars, build and remodel houses, photography, metal and woodwork, model rocketry, LEARNING Japanese, to name just a few – and lately LEARNED how to make BEER! 

In my early teens, I eventually figured out how to pick locks. In my 30’s I took a locksmithing course and now rekey locks regularly for friends and family.

One day back in the early 90’s I was struck with this new curiosity to LEARN how to use a computer. I have no idea where that inspiration came from. What followed was a year of intense frustration with this metal box and that cursed flashing green cursor silently taunting me. It was banished to the closet for a year. It kept calling me from that dark abyss. Until one day, I granted it clemency and vowed that it would not beat me again. In short, that means that I sacrificed almost every waking moment LEARNING how to use it. Fast forward decades later and I find myself looking back on a long career in tech – and still occasionally cursing the machine!

The big WHY

Occasionally people ask me how and WHY I LEARN all this stuff. “I dunno” is my standard response.  I’m one of those people that can’t sit still and am easily bored. It’s like an addiction, I guess. That immediate gratification that I get from learning something new just feeds the desire to learn more, and different things, or to learn how to do something EVEN BETTER.

I may not know WHY I do IT, but I do know that IT has shaped and changed my life in ways I never imagined. I’ve re-invented myself in several different careers. I’ve seen amazing things and met amazing people on this journey.

I’ll never be a rich person, but curiosity was the key to countless priceless opportunities - just from little sparks of inspiration fueled by constant learning.

Kindred Spirits: Knowing IT When You See IT

I have been seeing a massage therapist for the last year. Did I mention I was getting old? Her name is *****, and in her late 20’s is a voracious LEARNER. One day she told me she was LEARNING how to fix the brakes on her car. WHAT? Gender aside, I have only met a few people that have ever expressed an interest in fixing their own brakes. (For the record I don’t recommend this due to safety reasons).

Over the following weeks, I learned that she was also learning not one, but THREE languages, learning to play the violin (her second or third instrument), and sewing to name a few. She told me she was once the youngest EMT in her community, worked event security (also a Krav Maga student), and once worked a 9 to 5 job in a bank. One day she was inspired to be a massage therapist, and as a newbie, quickly developed a reputation as one of the best.

Now for the jaw dropper.

She told me recently that she was CURIOUS to LEARN how… LOCKS WORKED! To say I was speechless is an understatement. I thought I had found my long-lost child!

She has IT.

What IS Curiosity?

I dunno, but there is an obvious association with LEARNING. Not just learning, but OBSESSIVE LEARNING. Deprive yourself of food and sleep LEARNING. IT’s about COMMITMENT and PASSION. IT’s about EXCELLENCE. IT’s about SELF-FULFILLMENT. IT’s about INSPIRATION. IT’s a PERSONAL thing.

YOU know IT when you SEE IT. YOU know IT when you HAVE IT. People recognize IT immediately. People see value in IT. Not just monetary value, but the value implied in SELF-IMPROVEMENT. IT’s PRICELESS.

Can You LEARN to be CURIOUS?

Great question. Maybe LEARNING to be CURIOUS is not the right question. Maybe this is something that needs to ignite from a spark of INSPIRATION from something or someone in your life. IT’s there in all of us to some degree spawned from a survival instinct in our primeval ancestors. We just need to figure out how to light the fire.

So maybe the right question is how do you light that fire? How do you fan the flame? My suggestion is to start with small sparks. LEARN something new today, and tomorrow and the day after that. Make the perfect cappuccino. Learn a new word. Say “hello” in a new language. Learn how to make beer! Look up in the sky at the stars and wonder… Take the front door lock apart (no don’t – just kidding).

Those little sparks, with a little wind, can be the key that unlocks a BURNING CURIOSITY.