Curiosity | Conscious Form

Instead of always accepting someone’s answer or a team’s decision, ask them why. They may be:

Receiving incorrect information
Interpreting the correct information incorrectly

Only by asking “why” do you understand why they made the decision they did. Then, you’re able to propose new information or interpretations of the situation. This way you’re also not assuming you know their decision criteria.

As always, please ask and discuss their thinking respectfully and assume positive intent, giving them grace and patience along the way.

This strategy is a simpler form of first principles thinking. Many have written about Elon Musk’s leverage of First Principle’s thinking. James Clear’s overview is a good place to start.

David Foster Wallace:

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”

David’s 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College is a beautifully written summary of a simple method to be a better person. He reminds the graduating class to fight our default mode that we are the center of the universe. He has many other lessons as well.

The whole trick is keeping this truth up front in consciousness within daily life. He begs us to use empathy everywhere we’re ripe for frustration. We should pause, fight our default mode, so we can judge less and instead ponder the other person’s situation. It’s likely they have a valid reason for their actions or is going through something we can’t comprehend.

It’s a call for patience, grace, and understanding. Something we can all strive for more of. It’s a reminder to choose intentionality and remember how to think instead of living an unconscious existence.

Come for the wisdom, but you’ll at minimum get an example of masterful prose. I suggest you listen to it on a regular interval to keep it front-of-mind. I have a recurring to-do list item so that I listen every couple of months so that I remember how I’m supposed to think.

Thank you, David.

Curiosity breeds intentionality

Problem-solving by Asking Why

This is Water by David Foster Wallace

Ben Crichy from NASA on Curiosity and Perseverance