Curiosity Practice and Exercises

Collected here below are the Practices and Exercises that are in the Curiosity pages.

Printouts: Separating Out Knowns and Unknowns

Practicing curiosity with our own views:

Widening Certainty and Mystery Thresholds

Consider how this diagram may be different for you depending upon different topics. What does your curiosity curve look like, and where are your thresholds, for the following topics?

• Having conversations with strangers at a social gathering – do you approach people you don’t know, or do you only talk to people you already have a connection with?
• Walking around a hardware store – what aisles make sense to you? Which aisles do you want to know more about?
• Thinking about the outcomes of the last presidential election – was the result from many causes or a single cause?
• What sort of activities make a person more or less likely to get COVID-19? – How much does each mitigation measure help? Do some government suggestions seem to never make sense?

For example – Imagine that I am walking around a used bookshop. I wander around, and, as I always do, I find myself in the science fiction section.

My ‘certainties’: I might feel certain that I enjoy books having to do with aliens and space, preferably those that are written before 1980. I also feel that I like short story collections.

My ‘mysteries’: I haven’t read any science fiction books that are in the cyberpunk genre or books that have to do with virtual reality. I’ve seen them on the bookstore shelves many times though, but am skeptical.

Widening the thresholds: On the certainty end, I can see if I can start exploring some more modern science fiction books. Since I know I like short story collections, maybe I can find one that came out in the 1990s and see if I like it. I can become more uncertain that I know exactly what I like.

On the mystery end, I can start looking into the cyberpunk genre, but maybe I want to be more certain that the first book I read will be well-written, so I look for online reviews about the best book in this genre, and buy that book.

Inviting in Doubt

There are many ideas that we hold very close to ourselves, and hold with certainty that they are true. What would it take to invite doubt into those ideas? You don’t need to believe your doubts of course, but sometimes it is helpful to imagine what it would take to disbelieve what we think is true.

Try this with a few ideas of your own, perhaps starting with the ideas below:

• Are you politically liberal or conservative? Is there a cause that, were it taken up by the other side, you might consider voting for them instead?
• Cigarettes seem bad for you. What would need to be true health-wise to make this less certain? Are there potential benefits to smoking that could make it more worthwhile?

Examining Your Beliefs

Examining what you believe and thinking about what might make it valid or invalid is a valuable way to explore your orientation to truth. In each of the following areas, reflect upon what you believe to be true, and then decide what evidence, if it existed, might change your mind.

• What place does art education have in public schools? What is evidence that could drastically change your mind?
• Would it be worthwhile if countries had open borders? What is evidence that could drastically change your mind?
• Is it ‘ok’ to eat animals? What is evidence that could drastically change your mind?

If you enjoyed this, try applying this idea to any range of controversial issues, like this list on Wikipedia.

Overcoming a Sense of Wrongness

Briefly read the following example claims:

• Claim #1: Death is a bad thing, and humans should try to find ways to live for hundreds of years.
• Claim #2: Some prescription drugs can be taken safely in the correct dosages. Let’s make many of them over-the-counter at pharmacies and simply give consumers detailed instructions.
• Claim #3: Religious institutions are like companies – they have customers and generate income. This means that they ought to be taxed like for-profit companies as well.

Depending upon your intuitions, you may feel more or less strongly about certain claims. Choose one that seems especially salient to you.

Try reflecting that “There’s nothing wrong here.”   Or, “Give up that there’s something wrong here.”

Notice how you feel, and, afterward

Examine why you may be feeling this way. How does the claim interact with your values and your past? What are you still uncertain about?

As an example: Perhaps some people from the city government come to my door and suggest that, for safety reasons, they would like to cut down two of the trees in my front yard. I immediately feel that this is the wrong thing to do.

So let’s take the second step – giving up that there is something wrong here.

Afterward, I might reflect on why I experienced a sense of wrongness. Perhaps I really enjoy the trees in my front hard and don’t want them to go away. Perhaps I connect my trees with a sense of environmentalism and contribution. Or perhaps I don’t think that the people from the city government are correct about the safety of my particular trees.

Making an Identity Web

Make an identity web! Using a piece of paper and a pen, write your name in the center and then write certain descriptors and ‘labels’ along the edges. Afterward, take a look at different descriptors and reflect upon the following questions:

• Mark the parts of your identity that you consider most important. How do you prioritize maintaining those parts of your identity?
• If I no longer viewed myself like this, how would my view of myself change?
• If someone else did not see me like this, what do I think that they would be missing?
• Which descriptors are you open to having change, and which descriptors are you averse to having change?

Conversational Partnership

Find a conversation partner, and pick one of the following topics. Try using some of the tools listed above when they feel appropriate.

• Should the U.N. have a standing army?
• Should [insert your country here] have Compulsory voting?
• Should maternity and paternity leaves be equal?
• Should prospective parents be able to select aesthetic traits in their children such as freckles, or the color of the child’s hair?