Personally, I think that curiosity stems from a personal connection/reason to learn the subject - history seems pointless unless the teacher explains how it connects to the present, chemistry seems like you're learning pointless information unless you're making chemicals or taking care of an aquarium or etc, and foreign language seems pointless unless you're invested in the culture (eg anime and Japanese), [etc].
I'm also curious what you think of the difference between curiosity for a subject and passion for it (since I've always described it as passion) - what are the meaningful distinctions in the way you phrase it?
Hey! Thanks for the great & thought-provoking response, and taking the time to read it. :)
I do believe passion & curiosity to be intertwined, although I will say that passion stems from curiosity, and passion would not exist without curiosity. I perceive curiosity as something that is more fundamental and more first nature. A lot of curiosity comes naturally, which is through our surroundings & the environment we are in. Passion has more of a burning purpose in it and seems to be more of a commitment and specific - usually towards a particular subject/skill, while curiosity is more over-arching (one can be simply curious about the weather today, for example).
To address subjects like history, chemistry, foreign language, what you mentioned has a lot of truth to that, and I agree! Certainly, these subjects are seemingly much less useful & applicable to topics like personal finance, coding, public speaking, etc. and I do question the applicability of the subjects schools mandate when surely, there can be more 'useful' things to learn. However, even if a subject is so seemingly mundane and irrelevant, I believe that any knowledge learned is better than none, so I try to keep an open mind with whatever I learn!
Personally, I think that curiosity stems from a personal connection/reason to learn the subject - history seems pointless unless the teacher explains how it connects to the present, chemistry seems like you're learning pointless information unless you're making chemicals or taking care of an aquarium or etc, and foreign language seems pointless unless you're invested in the culture (eg anime and Japanese), [etc].
I'm also curious what you think of the difference between curiosity for a subject and passion for it (since I've always described it as passion) - what are the meaningful distinctions in the way you phrase it?
Hey! Thanks for the great & thought-provoking response, and taking the time to read it. :)
I do believe passion & curiosity to be intertwined, although I will say that passion stems from curiosity, and passion would not exist without curiosity. I perceive curiosity as something that is more fundamental and more first nature. A lot of curiosity comes naturally, which is through our surroundings & the environment we are in. Passion has more of a burning purpose in it and seems to be more of a commitment and specific - usually towards a particular subject/skill, while curiosity is more over-arching (one can be simply curious about the weather today, for example).
To address subjects like history, chemistry, foreign language, what you mentioned has a lot of truth to that, and I agree! Certainly, these subjects are seemingly much less useful & applicable to topics like personal finance, coding, public speaking, etc. and I do question the applicability of the subjects schools mandate when surely, there can be more 'useful' things to learn. However, even if a subject is so seemingly mundane and irrelevant, I believe that any knowledge learned is better than none, so I try to keep an open mind with whatever I learn!
Very thoughtful post
Thank you!