Curiosity

If you’re curious, do you really need anything else?

I find that, lately, I’m curious about just about everything. I’m interested in most topics and curious about anything else. It’s not even that I want to know or want to “become smarter” or gain or learn or get better, it’s just fun to learn. I’m not even sure I have a goal, it’s just a trait I can’t seem to stop. I meet people and want to ask questions, see how they do things, figure out how to do them myself, etc.

Curiosity:

curiosity: the desire to learn or know about anything; inquisitiveness.

a curious, rare, or novel thing.

a strange, curious, or interesting quality.

How does this compare to “interest” or “interested” in something? (Here’s my post on interest.)

Are you interested, curious or both? Did interest kill the cat? No, it was curiosity. Is curiosity more dangerous than interest?

I’m curious about how the contractor is going to get the glue off the stairs, but I’m not terribly interested. It doesn’t interest me to know how he’s going to do it, it’s more that I’m just curious.

Curiosity seems possibly more short term or even fleeting whereas interest is a deeper or more prolonged curiosity. Maybe if I’m curious about something for long enough it becomes an interest.

I’m analyzing these differences as I try to figure out not only my own learning patterns but those of my kids. Do they have to be curious about math (or geography or language or anything) to learn it? Or at least learn it more easily? If they’re curious, how far will that get them? What about if they’re interested in the subject? It seems to me that interested is going to take them quite a bit further.