Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things.

[Byrd]

Not sure if that all was addressed to me, someone upthread, or how much was rhetorical, but rather than further deconstruct the academic practice of curiosity or go over a long laundry list of specific points and observations (some of which probably should have their own threads), I'll narrow in on this one thing for now:

Is curiosity a wonderful thing? In my experience, there's two types: a yearning to fill in the blank spots on the map, exploration, moving beyond what is known, finding the larger paradigm, if there is one. Driven by imagination. And then, curiosity of detail, finding the exact mechanism, image, or description of a particular thing. Wonderful? Yes, there is a sense of wonder with childlike curiosity. But when the scope of the undiscovered world narrows, with age and experience, these two types of curiosity can become frustration and tedium.

Fortunately reality is larger than the worldly. There is very little I am widely curious about regarding the material, anymore. However my sense of wonder has greatly increased since I have move beyond that. I am now curious about different things.

I guess that seems stupid.




PS: If you haven't read it, I recommend Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. He could fix radios with his mind!

Nah.  Just an observation on the video.  But I wonder if you equal curiosity with information seeking.  To me, there's a bunch of different types of information seeking.  Curiosity is simply a question.  Information seeking is a process.


But this is how my brain works -- Theodore Sturgeon's "ask the next question" (many here may not know this one https://christopher-mckitterick.com/Stur...geon-Q.htm)

I ask a lot of "next questions" but the process can vary wildly depending on what I'm after.




And yes, Feynman was amazing!