Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

The final question comes from Kevin O’Keef, who asks, and I have edited the question down for length…. I know you will be addressing a lot of this in your book, but to me, you are the ultimate example of someone who loves to learn. I’m not sure if you’ve ever commented on this, but could you let us all know where this foundation of curiosity came from in you and how you ended up continuing to be a lifelong learner? I think this could be instructive for so many young people. They may have enthusiastic parents and teachers out there, but how can the average person ??stay invested and continue to love learning when there’s always another paycheck and another job and another course to get a good grade in…

I wish I could tell you that there is some formula or some secret, but there isn’t.

I think that everyone is initially curious. Children incessantly ask questions about the world. Most kids go through a phase where they are into dinosaurs, astronauts, or other such things.

The key is to let them explore wherever their curiosity takes them and nurture it.

Curiosity is usually stifled in kids in school. They have to do what they are told, not what they are interested in.

The problem is that you can’t quantify curiosity. It isn’t something that can show up in test scores, which is all that really matters for most schools. Curiosity isn’t a result; it is the motivating force that leads to results. Because of this we have a world of people who are not in the slightest bit curious about the world.

Thankfully, if you are listening to this podcast, that is probably not you. This audience is rather self-selecting in that regard, and that is one of the things I like about doing it.