The Amazing Things & Ideas - 066 Fear isn't the problem, culture is
The Amazing Things & Ideas is (usually) a weekly Sunday email newsletter. Apologies for sending it a couple days late for this edition. There are countless articles online on “how to be more curious”. Which is quite curious itself for why aren’t more people curious when (1) it has tremendous evolutionary benefits and (2) it seems to be the natural state of the human condition? What’s stopping people from being curious? As is often the case, there isn’t something necessary to add to solve this problem, but something to remove.
It would seem reasonable to conclude that fear is the thing most stopping people from being curious.
So should we aim to eliminate fear? Well, no. Even if it is fear that’s stopping people from displaying curiosity, that’s not the main problem to tackle. It is a rather odd fact at first that your fear might actually be correct. The culture and systems in place could be wrong. Let me explain. Why are people afraid to ask questions? As explained in the above bullet points, one reason might be that they care about what other people think of them. And another, similar one might be the dogmatic nature of some authority. These are cultural phenomena. Fear may be right when it stops you from asking that question to your boss. Because it is probable that it be not taken constructively by your boss and be seen as a form of insult. Though your fear may be right, the reasons for which it is right may not themselves be right to begin with. Fear is not something we should be fighting. We should instead fight those things that produce fear and obstruct curiosity in the first place. All people are prone to making error. Just because a higher authority says something has nothing to do with the justifiability of their statement. Nothing is justifiable. There are good explanations and bad. Reasoning from authority is a very fallacious way to form conclusions. Similarly, one must understand that group think is a real phenomenon. And no questions are stupid. To ask them has forever been the only way to progress. [On asking an entirely curiously-driven question to the taxi driver last night, I received a fascinating fact from his response. That simple moment again sparked my interest in just the importance curiosity plays in the role of the good life. From that flowed the content of this newsletter New Podcast Episode#6 – Jason Crawford: Does Progress Make Us Any Happier? Jason is the founder of The Roots of Progress, where he writes and speaks about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. In this episode we talk about the need to study progress, tackle the question of whether progress makes humans any happier, optimism and solutionism, and some more. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Thank you for reading. Just know that by subscribing to this newsletter and telling more people about it, you help me out. And if you want to be friends, you can reply to this email or DM me on Twitter. Onward, If you liked this post from The Amazing Things & Ideas Newsletter, why not share it? |
Key phrases
Older messages
065 Against always being on time
Sunday, October 9, 2022
If you have a “thing” for always being on time, you should reconsider it.
064 On the value of health and obsession
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Every time I'm sick I get reminded of what the historian Thomas Fuller once wrote: “Health is not valued until sickness comes.”
063 Being mad: a sign of genius?
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Isn't it ironic that the last name of the “Mad Scientist” is literally synonymous to the word Genius?
062 Being certain of uncertainty
Sunday, September 18, 2022
"Maybe."
061 Why we suffer
Sunday, September 11, 2022
When everything seems cruel, unfair, fake, painful, and gloomy all around—making it seem as though there were nothing else to life...
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