The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity

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But it is also the case that interesting things generally share a number of characteristics. The research of Paul Silvia suggests that to be interesting, material must be novel, complex, and comprehensible. That means introducing ourselves or others to things we haven’t encountered before (or novel aspects of familiar things), and calibrating their complexity so that these things are neither too hard nor too easy to understand. Understandability is crucial: as Silvia writes, new and complex things are interesting “provided that people feel able to comprehend them and master the challenges that they pose.” This isn't a science textbook, though occasionally there are big concepts being explained that will still have you scratching your head, but conveys how science can (and should) be for everyone. In a sense, that searching for connection and common ground is one of the main threads running through the book. Often, I loved it, as when Ince tweaks the nose of human exceptionalism by not only detailing but relishing our demonstrably close kinship not just to apes, or even other higher life, but with organisms right down to the level of yeast. Elsewhere, though, it can occasionally lapse into a false and cloying universalism. I adore the idea of an archaeologist proposing in front of a picture of a pharaoh and his bride, because these were people who had pledged to be together for eternity, and she wanted that same commitment. And maybe Egyptian love poetry really is impressively sexy, though we're told rather than shown as much. But then we get the point this is used to illustrate: "Just as the laws of the universe lead to the principle of uniformitarianism, so the principles of human lust and jealousy show that being human throughout time has not been so very different, simply because we didn't have smartphones and sandwich toasters." Admitting one’s ignorance and making use of it in tutoring requires confidence. Like many beginning classroom teachers, I was anxious about my knowledge and authority when I began serving as a teaching assistant at UW-Madison in 2007. Needless to say, such anxiety did not make me comfortable with open-ended curiosity as a teaching tool. But when I began working at the writing center a couple years later, tutoring put me in a different frame of mind. Not having to worry about securing authority freed me up to use my ability to ask questions and my capacity to be interested to empower students. This book is not for reading in one sitting - well, not for me! I've been reading a chapter (an essay), then reading something fluffy in between. That way, what Robin says can sink into my brain, which has always struggled with science. I also want to know "why", but the maths involved gets me every time! It's nice to know that I'm not alone, and Robin can explain things so that I can understand them. A fascinating, and fabulous read.

Many people think science is for ‘others’. For people with an Einstein level IQ and those who were born with a quantum physics book in their hand. But science is everyone’s. Robin really goes a long way to show that and this book is beyond perfect to rekindle a curiosity in science. It can enrich your life and how you think, and can be nothing but a benefit to those who retain their curiosity about the world and the universe through science. I found this book super interesting. I wasn't sure what I was getting into before reading apart from some classic Robin Ince comedy.

Importance of Being Interested

And as for your second question about using curiosity to engage undergrads who might not be interested in the essay they are writing, I feel like it often happens that my questions give unenthusiastic writers (or even resistant ones, as I describe in the post) permission to grab hold of what they’re saying in a paper. But I’d love to hear more from you, or from others, about this—have there been times where your curiosity motivated a student? Or situations in which expressions of interest did not work to motivate a student? It has the value of a coffee table book, or a toilet read. Nothing more. If you want science and insights, look elsewhere. The simplest way to open an information gap is to start with the question. Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham notes that teachers and parents are often “so eager to get to the answer that we do not devote sufficient time to developing the question.” Yet it’s the question that stimulates curiosity; being told an answer quells curiosity before it can even get going. Instead of starting with the answer, begin by posing a genuinely interesting question—one that opens an information gap.

I enjoyed reading this book - its certainly very thought provoking and likely to make you imagine many wondrous, space related/cosmology related things. Its a thoughtful read and its mostly a fairly easy read, at least I found it pretty accessible to start with but I admit I was in a bit of a rush to finish it and towards the end, it felt a bit more of a slog to read. Some subjects of course are more interesting than others I guess and certainly at the end, thinking too much about the ultimate death of the universe may feel a bit cold and depressing, so you may well want to be in the right frame of mind to read some of this but for the most part, this is a good read, with contributions from numerous scientists and some celebrities. I liked the quotes and the images provided alongside the text.In this book, there's a whole chapter on how the mind works, complete with memory distortions, cognitive biases and false assumptions. Robin seems entirely happy to frame the world through the distorting filter of his BBC bubble, never once realising that the water in which he swims doesn't reflect about 50% of the population’s view of reality. The underlying message is that the world would be much better if everyone saw the world like Robin. Perhaps it would, for all I know. I'll start by saying I like Robin Ince, he's a great co-host on Infinite Monkey Cage, and his intelligence and humour are normally engaging. Unfortunately, his book on being interested, just wasn't, well, interesting.

Every chapter introduces a "mindf***" concept from the world of science (largely cosmology) and prompts the reader to muse on its implications for the big questions of life through a series of humorous vignettes and dialogues. It encourages you to adopt science not just as a means to an end, but as a religion that can bring depth and inspiration to your life. While there's no explicit atheist agenda, it does assume that the reader - like the writer - is interested in gaining the comforts of faith through science. In and of itself, the attitude is admirable and the reasoning sensible, but I find some passages, in which faith and science are presented as competing forces, to be rather one-dimensional. Reflections on writing center practice, research, and theory from the students, staff, alumni, and friends of the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Recent Comments I'm in a similar boat to Robin, in school I felt like I should enjoy science, but the way it was taight at the time (80s into early 90s) more often than not excitement and discovery were quashed. The moments where you were told to throw some element through a bunsen burner flame to see what colour it created, or got the people with the longest hair to play with the Van der Graaf generator, were too few and far between. I found my love for science through curiosity and I’m now a scientist so, guess anyone can overcome their preconceived high school dislike of science. Parents and educators can also promote the development of kids’ interests by demonstrating their own passion for particular subjects. A study of 257 professional musicians, for example, found that most important characteristics of the musicians’ first teachers (and, of course, parents are often kids’ first teachers) was the ability to communicate well—to be friendly, chatty, and encouraging—and the ability to pass on their own love of music, through modeling and playing well. Try sharing your own personal interests with young people through casual conversations, hands-on demonstrations, and special trips.Still, I forgive a lot for the idea that of all the behaviours we've been told are uniquely human over the years, the relevant interviewee (and the book has many, including a few fairly big names) suggests that the only one really particular to us is the ability to contemplate multiple meanings of a single thing. Though even aside from my own example, which I would have liked to ask her about (not using tools directly, but using tools to make better tools), this does suggest depressing corollaries regarding the many people incapable of doing that, the regrettably numerous types who always take depiction for endorsement and assume all creators support their protagonists' actions. This is a book about science and thoughts for the average person. I really did not get a whole lot from this and I hated the writing style. It was written by someone who's not a scientist but interviews thought leaders in several different areas. Therefore it really didn't go that deep. The author emphasizes the need to fight against those who peddle misinformation, deliberately false or knowingly foolish ideas, often for financial gain or their fifteen minutes of famous notoriety. Time and again he reminds the reader of the necessity for scientific research, education and dissemination of knowledge and urges patience and understanding when theories must be adapted or changed completely when new evidence comes to light. And I think any tutor—even the most non-exclamatory sort—can express interest most essentially by asking good questions. Which is to say, questions that emerge from and engage with the details of the student’s draft, ideas, or talk. Not the questions we routinely ask when opening a conference, not broad questions about the student’s concerns or general questions about the course or assignment, important as those are. But questions that dig in to the nitty-gritty of the student’s thoughts about the topic or rhetorical situation of their writing. Questions we ask without any kind of follow-up advice in mind—questions that are not designed as lead-ins to where the tutor thinks the conference to go next. Questions that we ask because we don’t know the answer, and we’re interested in what it might be. Being interesting is, quite rightly, the coin of the realm in advanced scholarship. And I’ve absolutely, nerdily loved the opportunity to pursue my interests in poetic form and sustainable farming by writing a dissertation about organic metaphors in both fields. But I’m also grateful that I’ve been working in the Writing Center, because tutoring constantly reminds me, and indeed requires me, to look up and notice at least some of the other interesting things going on around me.

His mind is joyous, eternally curious and making connections that can be deep and humorous at the same time. If you like to laugh and be able to learn something new about science at the same time, or at least see it in a different light, then read Robin’s book. In this erudite and witty book, Robin reveals why scientific wonder isn’t just for the professionals. Filled with interviews featuring astronauts, comedians, teachers, quantum physicists, neuroscientists and more – as well as charting Robin’s own journey with science -The Importance of Being Interested explores why many wrongly think of the discipline as distant and difficult.There is no such thing as a stupid question from an outsider because it may very well be that question helps solve the problem. I’ve learned a lot by being interested in writers and their projects—not least how I can cultivate my capacity to be interested, and why I should. In the last two or three years, I’ve become an avid birder. I’m not the “big year” sort—I don’t even keep a life list—but I very much enjoy watching and identifying birds. And being interested in birds has made me more attentive. Coots on Lake Mendota in Madison.