On Curiosity

I read an article today that really emphasized something I've been thinking about a lot lately. The article was about mathematics, specifically the K-12 math curriculum and it's complete and total butchery of real mathematics. It was about the soul-crushing system we have in place that does no justice to real math, problem solving, or the arts of teaching and learning.

While I haven't been thinking about math, or our education system, I have been thinking a lot about creativity and problem solving, what fosters these traits, and what stifles them. The math article had a fair bit to say about all of these, and I highly recommend it: http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

What tied this particular article on the math curriculum and my own thoughts on creativity together was one quotation in particular: "We have millions of adults wandering around with “negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 4ac all over 2a” in their heads, and absolutely no idea whatsoever what it means. And the reason is that they were never given the chance to discover or invent such things for themselves. They never had an engaging problem to think about, to be frustrated by, and to create in them the desire for technique or method. They were never told the history of mankind’s relationship with numbers— no ancient Babylonian problem tablets, no Rhind Papyrus, no Liber Abaci, no Ars Magna. More importantly, no chance for them to even get curious about a question; it was answered before they could ask it" (italics mine).

This is what I've been thinking about lately: the lack of engaging problems presented not only in school, but in our entire culture. The culture I speak of is one of instant gratification, of impatience, of too much information and too little knowledge, of fast-paced lives, of technology we don't understand, of going nowhere quickly, of rushing, of transience. The world we live in, that we have created, seems to me to foster not dedication and a desire to learn, but impatience and a desire to know right now.

To me this is most obvious in the advances in technology. You already know I'm a Luddite, and that I may be biased here, but no one can deny that technology has dramatically increased the pace of our lives. We no longer have to wait days or weeks to receive a letter in the mail to hear from someone, or spend weeks or months traveling to get across the globe. We don't even have to go to the library, or to a university, to learn facts. Information, and information sharing, is now nearly instantaneous.

As young as I am, I can still recall a time when the in-between times were yours alone, the times walking and driving were sacred times to think by yourself. If you wanted to find out something, or something piqued your curiosity, you had to think about it until you at least got home, or to a library, or somewhere else with internet. You had precious moments to wonder, to dream, and to imagine.

I remember when I was little, when I didn't know something, I would ask my parents. If they didn't know the answer, my mom would take me to the library and we would look it up. Alternatively, we would just think about it for a while. Sometimes, my parents let me figure things out. Like when I wanted to know how a watch worked, and my dad gave me his old broken watch for me to take apart. I didn't learn exactly how watches worked, but I did learn how to take a watch apart and put it back together again, and what kinds of parts are in a watch. And while I might have been only eight or nine years old, I distinctly recall that experience. I can't say that for most of my eight and nine year old experiences.

I'm worried this kind of thing doesn't happen as much anymore. I'm worried that people today don't stop to think about the questions they ask and the things they wonder about, and instead immediately jump to google, to their iphone or android. I'm worried that the more this happens, the less people will exercise curiosity, and develop skills in problem solving, and the less people will be comfortable trusting themselves and their own thought processes.

Today, with the near omnipresence of smartphones, information is but a click away, much to my chagrin.

Before I go on, I want to leave a disclaimer. I'm not saying instantaneous information is all bad, or useless. I borrow Brian's smartphone all the time to look up directions (although more often for Angry Birds). And I'm sure most of you have other examples of times when a smartphone was absolutely essential or at least beneficial, handy, preferable, etc... I'm not here to dis all technological advancements.

Okay, now that I've said that, I do believe in many cases instantaneous information isn't all it's cracked up to be. Yes, we can "learn" any "facts" right away. But knowing tons of facts is the opposite of curiosity. Curiosity is not knowing. Curiosity is wondering about what you don't know. Curiosity is what feeds imagination, what feeds possibilities, what feeds the skills necessary for problem solving.

The only way to get good at problem solving is to try solving problems. The reason they're problems is that you don't know the solution, that there are millions of possible solutions. Giving someone the "answers" right away is almost never beneficial; in my mind it stifles creative thinking, and it basically says to someone, "you wouldn't have been able to figure that out on your own," and "this is the RIGHT way to do it." And then, once you "know" how to do something, you generally stop thinking about it. We've lost the habit of questioning whether it's really the best way, or even if there are any other ways.

There's a related problem to all of this, which Brian and I have been discussing a lot the past few months. I'll sketch the context first.

This semester, Brian took a class on Android Development. As a semester-long project, he and three other people had to create a working Android application for smartphones. Brian took this as an opportunity to implement an idea he's had for a long time.

Since it wasn't on the list of "approved" applications the professor provided for the class, Brian went to talk to him about it. The prof's first response was "That's impossible." So Brian spent several weeks doing research, speaking to other professors (one of whom thought this was a brilliant idea), and testing things out. He then went back to his professor and said, "Actually, it is possible, and here is why." The professor said fine.

Next step, teammates. Of the three teammates, one said this was impossible outright, and the other two immediately brought up reasons why it wouldn't work. Brian persisted, and finally convinced them to work on this with him (albeit begrudgingly).

Last week, Teammate 1 interviewed for DARPA. When asked about a particular kind of problem, s/he used this semester-long Android project as an example. Interviewers were very impressed, asked to see the work, and teammate 1 got the job offer. This from the person who originally said it was impossible. This same person is making this project into a research thesis next year.

The project is due Thursday, and nearly completed. Since Brian started this project, half of everyone he talked to (or more) about it told him it was impossible, useless, or worse. Several others, many more knowledgeable, have commended this idea as ground-breaking and with great monetary and research potential.

I'm really glad this project is almost done, and successful, but most of all that so many people have had turnarounds, realizing the benefits and possibilities of this app. Most of me and Brian's conversations had to do with the naysayers, specifically why some people, without any investment at all in a project, would say it's impossible, would immediately dismiss it's benefits, it's possibilities, without thinking about them. (I too am victim to this thinking sometimes). In my opinion, these intelligent people lacked creativity. They lacked imagination, and they lacked curiosity (at least at the point when Brian asked them). They did not ask, "How can I make this work?" or "How is this useful?" but instead spoke of "Why this won't work."

Meanwhile, I wonder, why is this kind of thinking prevalent? Not that it isn't beneficial to question things, but when your questions come in the form of impossibility instead of possibility, you force your thinking into a box. It's not about facing and overcoming the challenges to something, it's naming challenges as a reason NOT to do something. To me this is an example of the culture we live in, one where real problem solving is dismissed, and people instinctively turn to what's already known, in this case the pre-selected projects, not a new unproven idea. And what's the excuse? "I'm getting graded on this."

I guess we really have been talking about education all along. Because when your education system purposeful stifles creative thinking and forces students into choosing only the paths that are guaranteed successes, then you are guaranteed a population of many impatient citizens with little curiosity and problem-solving ability, who doubt their own abilities to think of solutions. The fact that these traits and skills remain at all is a testament not to our education system but to human nature itself, our strong innate desire to learn and to wonder. I hope we never lose those traits, and find a way to foster and encourage them instead.