Most people don’t recognize the name of explorer Bjarni Herjólfsson.
In 986, sailing from Norway to Greenland in a trip to visit his father, storms blew him
so far off course that when they finally let up, he and his crew had no idea where they
were. When the weather cleared, they were relieved
to find land. But instead of the familiar mountains and glaciers of Greenland, it was
forests. His crew begged him to land and explore this
new area. But anxious to reach his intended destination, Bjarni turned the boat around
and headed back out to sea, making it to Greenland a week later.
Years later, he recounted his story to a friend. A friend who decided to buy Bjarni’s ship
and use it to retrace his route. His friend was Leif Erikson. And that strange land Bjarni
saw, was Canada. Today, Leif Erikson goes down in history as
the first European to set foot on the American continent. Because Bjarni’s curiosity didn’t
get the better of him. “It is in our nature to explore, to reach
out into the unknown. The only true failure would be not to explore at all,” wrote polar
explorer Ernest Shackleton in his chronicle of the adventure that nearly cost him his
life. Curiosity is often overlooked as a critical
skill. It’s labeled as the antithesis of productivity and the plague of wandering minds.
In fact, many of our early stories on curiosity are warnings against its evils. Icarus is
punished for flying too close to the sun. Pandora releases evil into the world. And
Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden because they can’t keep their hands off an apple.
Curiosity challenges the authority. It isn’t content to merely do as it’s told. Or to
accept the idea that there are many questions we have yet to answer.
The curious are not willing to accept the message of conformity and blind obedience
that bureaucracies preach. And they’re unwilling to comply with a world that demands we always
have an opinion and sees changing your mind as a weakness.
So it’s easy to see how curiosity becomes distraction. A frivolity that pulls us from
the focus needed to turn out our daily tasks. Yet as Bjarni and countless others have found
out, curiosity — and a willingness to embrace the unknown — is what inspires
true accomplishments. It’s the difference between choosing safety and venturing out
into the unknown. In his talk from The 99 Percent, Andrew Zuckerman gives his insights
on creativity and managing a fear of failure. His point on the importance of curiosity in
driving accomplishments and spurring on the creative process resonates with anyone who’s
struggled to develop work that doesn’t align with their interest:
“What gets projects done for me is not inspiration. I have no idea what inspiration really is.
I know that I get really curious about things, and when that gets mixed with rigor, a project
gets completed. And that’s basically it, it’s that simple. When curiosity and rigor
get together, something happens. And when one of these things [isn’t] there, nothing
happens, or the project doesn’t really reach people.”
We often believe that when the time comes to seize that crucial opportunity, we’ll
recognize it. Yet most opportunities don’t present themselves as great opportunities.
Otherwise someone else would have already taken them.
It’s through our own curiosity that we find these new developments. As Isaac Asimov put
it: “The most exciting phrase to hear in science,
the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny…’”
Yet curiosity — that willingness to explore into the unknown — is a developed
practice like any other. It’s cultivated in the choices and behaviors that we reinforce
every day. And as Annie Dillard wisely reminds us: “How we spend our days is, of course,
how we spend our lives.” How did you follow your curiosity today? Where
did you choose to explore? Take these opportunities. Because while they
may not all take us to some undiscovered continent, a life spent pursuing your curiosities is
bound to be a good life. So stay curious. Keep exploring.
Or as Steve Jobs closed one of the greatest commencement speeches of all time, “Stay
hungry. Stay foolish.”