Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It

by Ian Leslie Narrated by Sean Runnette

Overview

A fun yet provocative look at the importance of staying curious in an increasingly indifferent world

Everyone is born curious. But only some retain the habits of exploring, learning, and discovering as they grow older. Those who do so tend to be smarter, more creative, and more successful. But at the very moment when the rewards of curiosity have never been higher, it is misunderstood and undervalued, and increasingly monopolized by the cognitive elite. A "curiosity divide" is opening up.

In Curious, Ian Leslie makes a passionate case for the cultivation of our "desire to know." Drawing on fascinating research from psychology, economics, education, and business, Leslie looks at what feeds curiosity and what starves it, and finds surprising answers. Curiosity is a mental muscle that atrophies without regular exercise and a habit that parents, schools, and workplaces need to nurture.

Filled with inspiring stories, case studies, and practical advice, Curious will change the way you think about your own mental life, and that of those around you.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Leslie...writes convincingly...about the human need and desire to learn deeply and develop expertise."—Wall Street Journal

"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."
—New York Times Book Review

"A refreshingly commonsensical voice in the ongoing argument over how to best mold human minds."
—Scientific American Mind

"Ian Leslie's fine new book Curious constitutes an excellent bridge between the two sides of the facts vs. experiences learning debate."
—Inside Higher Ed

Highly recommended for educators of all kinds. Leslie reaches to the true heart of education - turning students into 21st-century learners by bringing back that curiosity."
—Library Journal

"A beautiful and important exploration of the need to nurture, develop, and explore our curiosity even when we've long left our childhood behind."
—Maria Konnikova, author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes

"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."
—Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From

"This book is a beautiful and fascinating tribute to one of mankind's most important virtues."
—Tyler Cowen, George Mason University

author of Why Don’t Students Like School Daniel Willingham

Curiosity—that elusive, mysterious state—seems always to slide away when writers attempt to dissect it. Ian Leslie not only offers a compelling analysis of how curiosity works, he tells us how to prompt it in our children, our employees, and ourselves. Both fascinating and eminently practical, Curious is a book to be relished.”

David Dobbs

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 book—as Montaigne said of travel—with which to ‘rub and polish’ one’s brain. It’s the most delightful thing I’ve read about the mind in quite some time.”

New York Times bestselling author of Mastermind Maria Konnikova

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.”

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.”

author of Future Perfect: The Case for Progres Steven Johnson

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.”

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172939174
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	09/28/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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