We’ve come to misunderstand curiosity, mistaking diversive curiosity, our attraction to novel stimuli, as the real thing. This leaves us floundering in a world of Angry Birds, live tweeting, and fleeting, click-through distractions. Leslie shows how these distractions have led to a decline in deep, sustained quests for knowledge and understanding—what he calls epistemic curiosity—which relies on effort and persistence, and empathic curiosity, which leads us to wonder about the thoughts and feelings of others. Drawing on fascinating research from psychology, sociology, and business, Curious looks at what feeds true curiosity and what starves it, and uncovers surprising answers. Curiosity isn’t a quality you can rely on to last a lifetime, but a mental muscle that atrophies without regular exercise.
