Can Curiosity Be Bad For You?

TL;DR -- Yes, No & Maybe!

I was having an interesting discussion with a friend the other day on the notion of PolyPaths –

Friend: You say that a core trait of PolyPaths is following your curiosity, but it may not always be a good thing!

Me: How so?

Friend: I mean, you could be curious about the new WhatsApp notification that pops up in the middle of something important. Or you could be curious if that YouTube video lives up to its clickbait thumbnail. Is that really the kind of curiosity we should be indulging?"

Me: Hmm, good point. Let me think about this a bit more!

Curiosity is an innate trait. From childhood, we are curious about how the world works, which is how we develop physically as well as mentally. Babies are curious about their surroundings which causes them to roll over, then crawl and then walk! This curiosity then leads them into a why and how phase as they get into toddlerhood – Why is the sky blue? How does the elevator work? Why can’t they have cake for dinner? (that’s the phase my older kid is in, so witnessing it firsthand as I am writing this :D)

This inherent curiosity is the driving force behind humanity's progress. It's what led us to discover fire, explore the stars, and invent the internet. For polypaths, curiosity is even more vital. It ignites our diverse passions and propels us down multiple paths of learning and growth as beautifully demonstrated by Da Vinci, Nathan Myhrvold and many more..

As I thought more about the conversation with my friend, I realized that —

curiosity is essentially mental hunger

Just like the body needs food and water to satiate its physical hunger, the brain needs new information or experiences to quench its natural curiosity. So, similar to food there are healthy and unhealthy ways of satisfying your curiosity.

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Spotting Junk Food

We all have our guilty pleasures – that irresistible urge to check what caused a ping, or checking if what you posted got any likes or comments. These are the junk foods of curiosity – quick hits of dopamine that provide instant gratification but leave us feeling empty and unfulfilled. If you're constantly feeling guilty about how you're spending your time, it's a sign that you're indulging in too much mental junk food.

There's another category of mental snacks that falls somewhere between junk food and a nourishing meal—think of it as the equivalent of grabbing a bag of chips or an energy bar when you're on the go. It might satisfy your hunger pangs temporarily, but it won't provide the sustained energy and nutrients you need to thrive. Things like gossip, news articles or even random browsing for “work” falls in that category. They can create a sense of "false learning," where we feel like we're expanding our knowledge but are actually just skimming the surface.

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Healthy Eating for the Brain

Just as a healthy diet is essential for the body, feeding your curiosity with nutritious information and experiences is the way to go. This could look like engaging in deep conversations with fascinating people, losing yourself in a captivating book or course. Like food, it is the sustained consumption of nutritious experiences over time that really makes a difference — the daily music practice, or the daily time block to learn new concepts, etc.

Another test is did you lost track of time when you were in the midst of it? In its best version, curiosity is the engine that drives us towards the flow state. When we're deeply curious about something, we become fully immersed in the process of exploration and discovery. We lose ourselves in the moment, time seems to melt away, our minds and bodies working in perfect harmony. This is where the magic happens, where we achieve peak performance and experience the profound joy of being truly alive.

"The very nature of the flow experience is to be immersed in the present moment. To be fully absorbed in what you're doing, you need to be curious and engaged."
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Pioneer of the concept of flow state)

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Leaving Space for Serendipity

Having a larger purpose or goal is also helpful since it can direct your curiosity in more helpful ways. For example, if you know your fitness goals then you can tailor your diet exactly to achieve those. Similarly, if your vision is a pollution-free world, your curiosity might lead you to explore sustainable living, environmental activism, or even geo engineering. By aligning your curiosity with your values, you create a powerful synergy that drives both personal growth and positive change.

But sometimes, our curiosity itself is trying to give us a direction. Towards the end of my PhD I naturally got curious about how cryptography is used in the real world at scale. To appease that, I attended the Real World Crypto conference where I ended up connecting with my future manager and team.. 🙂 Following that curiosity exposed me to the new world of privacy engineering which turned out to be a marvelous fit for what I was looking for, and what I was good at!

So, embrace your curiosity, but choose your mental meals wisely. Feed your mind with information and experiences that nourish your soul, challenge your assumptions, and inspire you to grow. And, sometimes the most fulfilling journeys are the ones we least expect!

PS: Take a few minutes to think about these, and share your answers in the comments if you feel comfortable 🙂

• What are you naturally curious about these days?

• How do you quench that curiosity?

• Is there a healthier sustainable way to do so?

• Are there things you are curious about that you end up neglecting/ignoring/suppressing?