07/14/2014
In this curiously uninspiring study, British journalist Leslie (Born Liars) superficially draws on science, psychology, and history to survey the evolution of curiosity in human life and culture and to lament its supposed recent decline. Leslie tracks the evolution of “diversive curiosity,” which opens our eyes to the new around us; to “epistemic curiosity,” the deeper and more disciplined kind of curiosity; and to “empathic curiosity,” which causes us to wonder about others’ thoughts and feelings and gives curiosity its deeply social quality. He then offers a brief historical survey of curiosity from the ancient world through the Middle Ages, when curiosity was often viewed as subversive and thus not encouraged, to the “age of questions,” beginning with the Renaissance and going up to the mid-20th-century, when curiosity drove scientific developments. Leslie dubs the period from around 1945 until today the “age of answers,” when the ready availability of answers to any question fostered a lack of curiosity about the world. As an antidote to the waning of curiosity in our time, Leslie offers seven ways to stay curious, including staying foolish, asking the big why, being a “thinkerer,” and turning puzzles into mysteries, but the book’s blandness mirrors the corporate and advertising worlds toward which it is geared. (Sept.)
The Scientist
“If you weren't the curious sort, you'd likely never even crack this book. But then you'd be missing out on a world of interesting science exploring just why humans find the urge to learn and know so utterly irresistible.”
The Christian Century
“Leslie evokes wonder at the world around us.”
Inside Higher Ed
“Ian Leslie's fine new book Curious constitutes an excellent bridge between the two sides of the facts vs. experiences learning debate.”
Library Journal
“With heavy implications for the future of education, the author makes a strong case for a more inquiry-based approach. Highly recommended for educators of all kinds. Leslie reaches to the true heart of educationturning students into 21st-century learners by bringing back that curiosity.”
Kirkus Reviews
“A searching examination of information technology's impact on the innovative potential of our culture.”
Steven Johnson, author of Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age
“With this enthralling manifesto on the power of curiosity, Ian Leslie has written a book that displays all the key characteristics of its subject matter: an inquisitive, open-minded, and ultimately deeply rewarding exploration of the human mind's appetite for new ideas.”
New York Times Book Review
“Leslie delineates the various types of curiosity and what might be lost as we lean on search engines and offload our memories to cloud storage. He's at his best when considering how socioeconomic conditions impede curiosity.”
Scientific American Mind
“Leslie's book is engaging, moving fluidly from one idea to the next. He provides a refreshingly commonsensical voice in the ongoing argument over how to best mold human minds.”
San Francisco Book Review
“Rich with insight and answers. Leslie writes with conviction and authority, illuminating issues in psychology, social trends, and politics.... A delightful read.”
Yohuru Williams, Huffington Post
“Captivating.... Leslie explores the troubling prospects of a world where curiosity has taken a back seat to standardization and vision-less acceptance.”
Stephen L. Carter, Bloomberg View
“Enjoyable.... Leslie presents considerable evidence for the proposition that the society as a whole is growing less curious.”
Wall Street Journal
“Leslie...writes convincingly
about the human need and desire to learn deeply and develop expertise.”
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group
“David Ogilvy believed that the best advertising writers were marked out by ‘an insatiable curiosity about every subject under the sun.' Nowadays, as Ian has spotted, the same high level of curiosity is a requirement for progress in more and more jobs in business and government. In this excellent book Ian Leslie explains why: the obvious ideas have mostly been done; what progress there is left now happens obliquely.”
Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
“In this important and hugely enjoyable book, Ian Leslie shows why it's more important than ever that we find new ways to cultivate curiositybecause our careers, our happiness, and our children's flourishing all depend upon it. Curious is, appropriately enough, a deeply fascinating exploration of the human capacity for being deeply fascinated, as well as a practical guide for becoming more curious yourself.”
David Dobbs, feature writer for National Geographic, Atlantic, Slate, and other major publications
“I would never have guessed that so slim a volume could so richly pique my curiosity about curiosity. Stuffed with facts, ideas, questions, quotes, musings, findings, puzzles, mysteries, and stories, this is a bookas Montaigne said of travelwith which to ‘rub and polish' one's brain. It's the most delightful thing I've read about the mind in quite some time.”
Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University
“Ian Leslie argues that true curiosity is in decline. This book is a beautiful and fascinating tribute to one of mankind's most important virtues."
Maria Konnikova, author of the New York Times bestseller Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes
“A beautiful and important exploration of the need to nurture, develop, and explore our curiosity even when we've long left our childhood behind. Ian Leslie reminds us of those essential life lessons that we tend to forget in our quest to be busy and productive: that sometimes, it's ok to waste time; and often, the most productive mind ends up being the mind most open to indulging its most childish impulses.
2014-06-30
London-based writer Leslie (Born Liars: Why We Can't Live Without Deceit, 2011) takes issue with current trends in education, debunking the idea that in the computer age, it is unnecessary and counterproductive for schools to teach facts.“The argument that schools ought to prioritize learning skills over knowledge makes no sense; the very foundation for such skills is memorized knowledge. The more we know, the better we are at thinking,” writes the author, who warns that educators today are in danger of misunderstanding the basis for creativity. Elaborating on a suggestion made by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman in his book,Thinking, Fast and Slow, Leslie explains how long-term memory sharpens our intuitive grasp of a problem. “Unfettered curiosity is wonderful; unchanneled curiosity is not,” he writes. Children require direction about what they need to learn; even if they find classroom assignments boring, the lessons they learn may prove to be invaluable in the future. The ease of finding quick answers using search engines and Wikipedia can short-circuit serious investigation if ready access to the Internet is treated as a substitute for traditional, fact-based learning rather than an enhancement. The Internet, writes Leslie, “presents us with more opportunities to learn than ever before and also allows us not to bother.” We are the beneficiaries of “the Enlightenment's great cascade of curiosity,” which laid the basis for modern society, but today we are in danger of being swamped by “an abundance, rather than a scarcity, of information.” The author concludes with a challenge: “Isaac Newton…felt he was standing on the shoulders of giants. From our own heady vantage point, we can take in a view of breathtaking majesty, a better one than was available to Newton….” It is up to us whether we, as individuals, parents and educators, “take advantage of [our] sublimely lucky break.”A searching examination of information technology's impact on the innovative potential of our culture.