#25: BOOST CURIOSITY ON AND OFF THE JOB - OR ELSE WHAT?
The Times Demand Continuous Reskilling and Innovation
Our global economy is now in a state of increasing permacrisis. Plus, AI will impact the knowledge-content of every occupation. Both you and your employer need to boost respective -“curiosity quotients” (CQ).
To be gainfully employed for an adult lifetime, you must now continue to - learn, unlearn and relearn – mostly on your own. Curiosity will be both your spark and fuel for doing so. (A good CQ will also help you live a happier, more creative live vs. a rutted-out one of “quiet desperation”.)
And, if a company doesn’t keep pace with or ahead of change in their ecosystem, they will lose to competitors that innovate first, fastest and best. Doing the past more efficiently won’t suffice. Leaders, who are experts at the past, must now also ask the best questions about exploring and experimenting forward.
Have You Learned to Be Un-Curious?
All baby mammals - including humans- are inherently curious. This drives their mastering of survival skills for their respective environments. Observe this chain of emotions and activities that 5-year-olds go through: awe or surprise, wonder/curiosity, exploration, experimentation, failing forward, reflection, trying again smarter until achieving good-enough mastery of basic survival skills. And, note the glee upon achieving each, next-level of competence; it’s evolutionary brain-chemistry at work.
Neurotransmitters make the pursuit of survival skills pleasurable. We get hits of dopamine when questing (go get it) and then a serotonin hit upon goal achievement (I’m good!). Unfortunately: digital-service algorithms are now hijacking the dopamine reward center with distracting, addictive, passive, time-wasting, digital entertainment. Who’s got time for active practice to achieve new, employment, survival skills?
In addition - schools, social conformity pressures, and corporate hierarchies - all teach us to - not be curious. Natural curiosity peaks at about 5, when teach-to-the-test schools don’t allow off-topic questions. Adolescent insecurities keep us from trying anything new that might require looking like a bumbling, foolish beginner. And, in most companies you don’t dare second-guess opinionated bosses or upset the status quo.
Why and How To Reclaim Your Kid Curiosity?
Easy these days! You can get CQ answers from AI prompts like:
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Why should I boost my curiosity quotient (CQ)?
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How can I improve my CQ?
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How can my company improve its CQ?
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What are factors that inhibit my personal (or company’s) curiosity?
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How do CQ, IQ, EQ and AQ inter-relate? (Q’s have become a fad!)
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Etc.
There is even a book entitled – ‘The Curiosity Quotient (CQ)’ by Baweja which I suspect that he wrote with AI in record time to then self-published on Amazon. It’s a good value, if you aren’t up for doing and organizing your own AI-research document on the subject.
But, Then: How to Close the Know-How, Can’t-Do Gap
The wisdom of the ages and how-to instructions for any skill development are all on the internet, growing by the day, and typically free. (But, Bruce: I already know how to be twice as good as I’m doing; I don’t need more know what, why and how.) To help with the Can’t Do challenge, some more AI prompts to try:
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What skills will succeed in the AI era?
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Why and how to start a new skill in tiny steps
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How to master EQ skills to a valued, employable level
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Etc.
But, how many people:
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Have the initial curiosity to read this blog and then check out some of the AI prompts?
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And, then have the discipline to do the “deliberate practice” to become excellent at any of the most-in-demand skills?
The Ultimate Meta-Skill: Mastering the Process of Mastery
Isn’t it regrettable that schools K-12 don’t - teach, practice and coach - “life skills”? Wouldn’t it be great if high-school graduates could explain how they put to work these AI prompts:
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The art and science of learning how to learn for life on your own.
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The art and science of getting on and staying on a path of mastery to an excellent, valued, employable level.
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Practical exercises for improving (insert a new, “soft” skill like: EQ, CQ, AQ)
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Kinesthetic learning strategies for (insert a chosen “hard” skill like: piano, chess, tennis. etc.)
“Living Into the Questions”
AI (now a verb) this Rilke inspired quote. On this site, I’m living into: “how to help more people, become happy, lifetime mastery-capable?” If you can help me, please be in touch. Then, onward we will go together!