The Death of Curiosity and Critical Thinking

I remember vividly when my oldest daughter was 4 years old and she was in a phase where everything she encountered was greeted with the question “why” and her curiosity about all things was a constant presence in our lives.  At times, the perpetual drumbeat of “why, why, why” drove me crazy, but I admired (with a high degree of patience) her quest to discover and learn.  Best of all, as an adult now, she hasn’t lost that curiosity.  How often though we grow out of that phase rarely to return to it.  I have been gifted with a spirit of perpetual curiosity, but I’m saddened that I don’t see that spirit as often in other people, both young and old.  What causes us to lose or grow out of that childhood phase where everything in life is a new discovery?

I’ve also been reflecting on the apparent lack of critical thinking in the organizations I work with.  It’s as if people are either unable or unwilling to embrace a situation with a spirit of discovery or a willingness to question the conventional.  In talking with numerous executives in business, they also seem to share the same experience, namely that people no longer regularly use the wonderful and mystical power of the mind, to solve today’s problems both simple and complex.  When people don’t speak up for whatever reason, the opportunity for learning and exploration is lost.  This is where creativity and critical thinking begins to die.

It appears as if our society is losing its curiosity and with it, the ability to think critically about the world around us.  With so much information (and answers) at our fingertips, its easy to use Wikipedia or a search engine to get an answer rather than trying to solve things on our own.  While this may work fine for simple things, we eventually train ourselves to quit asking the simple “why” question or “how” when faced with a new situation.  Yet the critical thinking part of our minds is like any skill that will languish over time if not exercised.  Based on my own observations and experience, I would conclude we are a society that is rapidly becoming mentally out of shape!

I recently met Frank Kowalski, a physics professor at Colorado School of Mines who has been working on a great project that uses modern tablet technology to improve critical thinking skills in the context of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education.  Frank has experienced some of the same challenges while engaging students to get them to think critically and be willing to question what they are being told or what they observe.  In my conversation with him, we reflected on the fact that so many of the world’s most significant scientific breakthroughs have come at the intersection of analysis, critical thinking, and intuition.  When people stand back and ponder what mechanisms, forces, and motivation are causing something to occur or when they take a complex issue, break it down and question, analyze, and solve the pieces before putting it all back together, they open the door and have access to that wonderful world of creative thought often present in the form of intuition. 

Yet in today’s world of technology, connectivity, and ubiquitous information access, we are training people to simply reach out to the Internet or a database and grab the answer rather than trying to really solve the problem directly.  Frank described for me experiences where students were ill prepared to solve a problem or afraid to ask critical questions yet could give you the right answer simply by looking it up.  We both mused about whether or not a physics student would notice or even question a professor who changed Newtown’s Law – an interesting experiment indeed.  Nonetheless, his work is focused on trying to find a way to bridge the gap between the power of technology and the social/cognitive skills of curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking.  I’m encouraged and anxious to learn if he will be able to somehow find a way to reignite that childhood need for discovery.

I wonder if in leveraging the power of technology, we have somehow lost touch with the social and cognitive skills critical to creativity.  While social networking technologies have created vast networks of connectivity between people, it has also dramatically changed the dynamics of relationships.  It seems like people are more comfortable asking a question through a computer anonymously than they are raising their hand in class or speaking up in a meeting.  When critical thinking breaks down, so does the ability of any organization to address its most challenging situations.  I believe that critical thinking fueled by a culture of curiosity can be a very transformational force.  So next time someone asks you “why” I encourage you to join the expedition and seek to discover something new.  More importantly, I exhort you to become the chattering "why, why, why" voice in the room and bring others along with you on life's adventure.