Something to think about
Curiosity may not have served the cat, but for humans, it’s one of the most powerful tools we have. It opens up vistas we didn’t know existed. It cracks open certainties. Entire civilisations, you could argue, were built on the impulse to ask, “What if?”
But while curiosity is easy to praise, it’s often hard to practise — especially in public.
Online, we’re nudged to show certainty, to pick a side, to appear informed. Questions, by contrast, can feel like hesitation — or worse, disloyalty. In some circles, being curious is treated not as a strength, but as a failure to commit.
Yet this is precisely what makes curiosity so valuable.
It resists premature closure. It invites us to stay open, just a little longer — not endlessly, not aimlessly, but long enough to ask, “What am I missing?”
Curiosity slows us down in a world that’s always speeding up. It makes space for understanding before judgement. And it gives us the freedom to learn — not because we’re ignorant, but because we recognise we might be wrong.
As Richard Feynman put it:
“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”
A curious mind isn’t indecisive. It’s disciplined. It holds back from easy conclusions, not out of fear, but out of integrity.
Something to try
This week, when a comment or headline provokes you — pause.
Instead of responding with a verdict, try responding with a question.
What’s the full story? What might I be missing? What could change my mind?
Even one honest question can soften certainty and sharpen thought.
You might find this printable PDF helpful:
Thinklier
Something to read
"In the late 1980s, a man named Daryl Davis walked into a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan. He wasn’t there to shout or protest — or even to argue. He was there to ask questions."
So begins a true story about the disarming power of curiosity — and how one man used it to break through the hardest of barriers.
Thinklier
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See you next Thursday.
— The Thinklier team