There's an age-old saying that 'curiosity killed the cat'. We, however, are here to tell you that, in fact, it made the cat smarter! But how? Read this story to find out.
"Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning." ―William Arthur Ward
The one attribute that defines a genius personality isn't his intelligence, so much, as his curiosity. Don't believe this?
Look back through history at all the famous intellectuals. Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Richard Feynman, Leonardo Da Vinci, etc., all had one thing in common: they were all extremely curious about the world around them.
This natural quality of theirs was what escalated them from average personalities to true geniuses.
But how exactly does curiosity end up making us smarter? In the following lines, we present to you some of the benefits of being curious, and the ways in which it can actually make you smarter.
Why is it Good to Be Curious?
Curiosity Enhances Learning
Curiosity fuels questions about the world: What, who, where, how?
You will go hunting for the answers and won't rest until you find them. The end result is that, you will learn a lot, and keep on adding to your knowledge throughout your life.
No wonder then that, naturally curious people, are often the most knowledgeable ones around.
You Will Have Many New Experiences
Exploring for answers feels like embarking on an adventure fueled by curiosity.
Depending on what you seek, you might have to look in new places and learn new things. You are likely to face difficulties, but you will keep overcoming them, continuing onwards till you reach your final goal of complete understanding.
This journey from ignorance to knowledge and all the things that happen in between will bring you new experiences.
This will eliminate banality, and bring a new freshness in your everyday life. It will simulate your creativity, and also help you grow as an individual.
You Will Understand Processes Better
Life is a process. Curiosity drives us to understand how things work.
Occurrences such as the shining of stars, the blowing of the wind, the production of cola, the barking of a dog, etc., will all stir up that desire within you to finding out how.
Thus, curiosity will help you better understand the working of all that you come across.
You Will Get to the Bottom of Things
Questioning old beliefs leads to progress. Imagine still fearing falling off a flat Earth!
It was curiosity that drove the early pioneers into exploring and learning the reality that the Earth was in fact round, and you could go around it without being afraid of a fall.
Thus, curiosity will make you want to get to the bottom of things. You won't simply take someone's word for something, without questioning it. You will keep digging till you unearth the actual truth.
You Will Have More Interactions
Curious minds, whether social or not, often have wide networks.
This is because, while searching for answers, many times they have to interact with people who might know they are trying to find out. Curiosity will make you interact more people, and you will end up making some valuable friends.
Your Efficiency Will Increase
Curious minds approach challenges with creativity, not just following the rules.
They try to find out the most efficient way to achieve better results. If you are curious, you will gather a bunch of possible ways of completing a given task, and pick the one that works the best.
As such, this attitude will make you avoid donkey work, and instead allow you to perform smartly.
You Will Explore Newer Possibilities
Curiosity expands horizons, unlocking inner potential and endless possibilities.
For instance, you might be an engineer by qualification, but if you are curious, you might want to find out how articles on the Internet are written.
It might even happen that, while exploring the process of writing, you may find out that you actually enjoy doing it, and that people like reading your work. Thus, here, your curiosity would have ended up opening a whole new field of work for you.