Curiosity is important which is pretty obvious, but we’re still gonna talk about it

Curiosity has always been incredibly important for humans. Every one of our technological achievements over the last 10,000 years—from satellites in space to the very letters that make up the words you are reading—can be directly attributed to our boundless curiosity. For all of its importance in the past, none of that compares to its importance in our future.

We live in a time that is defined by entrenched opinions and constant change—two things which really don’t go together very well. By leaning into the most curious versions of ourselves, we can step beyond the entrenched opinions and adapt to the constant change.

Of course, it is one thing to talk about “leaning into the most curious versions of ourselves” and another thing entirely to actively be more curious. Curiosity is a very broad principle and the idea of being more curious can be difficult to nail down. If I am obsessed with penguins and have spent 10,000 hours researching penguins, and I decide to spend 10,000 more, am I being curious? If I have never played a game of golf and have no interest in ever playing a game of golf, does leaning into curiosity mean that I should maybe drop my preconceptions about golf and give it a try? (Fuck golf though.)

When does “curiosity” mean trying new things, and when does it mean going even harder on research about something that we are already passionate about?

Who the hell knows?

Genuinely leaning into curiosity can cause some real discomfort; some people would even say that curiosity is specifically about stepping out of your comfort zone. On the other hand, if curiosity isn’t grounded in pleasure (yours and others’), it is unlikely to be sustainable.

Grounding curiosity in the body

Holding yourself to some abstract rule about trying new things may be useful, but the body does give us some clues about how to aid this process with a bit more mindfulness.

In an effort to facilitate more people (including us) leaning into new sensations that lead to pleasure, we are compiling a list of sensations worth exploring so we can turn it into some kind of epic art project that we can pass out to our friends, strangers, people soliciting merchandise or religion at our door, and more specifically, you (our readers).

In order to be super specific we are trying to nail down the idea of sensations and not veer into the broader category of experiences. An experience can be a conversation, a thought, a series of events taken together, or even a sensation. A sensation is a distinctly physical experience. Sensations are embodied.

Here are a couple of examples that we have compiled so far:

• Air drying after a shower

• Breaking open a cattail

• Holding a position until you literally (physically) cannot anymore

• Hugging a tree

• Peeling a mango

• Eating an orange in the shower (see our illustration this week)

• Skydiving (or even fake skydiving where you get in those funny chambers). . .(or even leaning your entire torso out of a car that is moving 30 mph)

• Walking barefoot for an entire day

• Switching between the hottest setting in your shower and the coldest

• Blowing bubbles through your hands with kitchen soap (this gets messy)

• Eating an orange only by the individual tiny juice vesicles inside the individual segments

• Kissing a rose tenderly (the more you really get in there, the better)

Your Turn

Please send us your ideas! Even better, comment them below! We love the idea of creating art fueled by our community, so we are going ham (like Ponyo) compiling this list, and as soon as it is ready to share, we will make it available!

We have found that asking your friends/family this question while grabbing a meal or catching up can make for an extremely interesting conversation. Perhaps we would even say it's an experience worth exploring, and maybe we can make that our next project.