I have a small habit that I am trying to build.
When I have a question in my head, I try to actually find the answer.
Not immediately. Not every single time. But sometimes I just stop and give myself some time to look into it.
Because during a normal day, I have so many random questions.
Some are important.
Some are completely stupid.
And some are the kind of questions that appear for five seconds and then disappear.
“Why does this actually work like this?”
“Could I build this myself?”
“Why did this happen?”
“What would happen if I changed this?”
“Is there a better way to do it?”
I get these questions all the time.
Especially when I am working on something.
And usually, what happens?
I think about it for a moment, tell myself I will look it up later, and then continue with whatever I was doing.
Of course, later never comes.
We have so many questions, but so little time for them
I think this is a little sad.
We are curious about so many things, but we rarely give ourselves enough time to follow that curiosity.
There is always something more urgent.
University.
Work.
Emails.
Projects.
Messages.
Your phone.
And somewhere in the middle of all that, there is this small question in your head that you never answer.
I started noticing that when I actually take the time to investigate one of these questions, I almost always feel good afterwards.
Even if the answer turns out to be completely useless.
Sometimes I spend thirty minutes looking into something and think:
“Okay… that was probably unnecessary.”
But I still like that I know now.
Curiosity wants an answer
I think curiosity is a strange feeling.
You can be completely fine not knowing something.
Then suddenly you notice a gap.
You realize there is something you don’t understand.
And once you notice it, you want to know.
Psychologist George Loewenstein described curiosity partly through this idea of a gap between what we know and what we want to know (Loewenstein, 1994).
That actually makes a lot of sense to me.
You don’t suddenly want to know everything.
You just want to close that one gap.
And sometimes the easiest thing is simply to go and find out.
Engineers probably understand this
Maybe this is especially familiar if you are an engineer.
At least I hope I am not the only one.
You see something and immediately start thinking:
“Why?”
“How?”
“Can I make this better?”
“Can I automate this?”
“What happens if I change this?”
Sometimes you don’t even want to know the answer because you need it.
You just want to know because now you are curious.
I think that is one of the nicest things about engineering.
You don’t always accept things exactly as they are.
You start taking them apart in your head.
Sometimes that can be annoying, especially when your brain refuses to let go of a small problem.
But I think it is also a really useful quality.
Curiosity makes you investigate instead of simply accepting.
The little satisfaction of finally knowing
There is something very satisfying about finally answering a question that has been sitting in your head all day.
Maybe you search for it.
Maybe you read an article.
Maybe you ask someone.
Maybe you build a small experiment.
Maybe you spend an hour going down a complete internet rabbit hole.
And then eventually you get it.
“Ohhh. So that’s why.”
I really like that moment.
It is small, but it feels good.
And sometimes the answer leads to another question.
Then another one.
And suddenly you have learned something you probably would never have learned if you had just moved on.
Research also suggests that curiosity can motivate people to actively seek information rather than simply wait for it to be provided (Loewenstein, 1994; Kedrick et al., 2023).
That feels pretty obvious once you experience it yourself.
When you have the question, you actually care about the answer.
Maybe this is also a way of taking care of yourself
When people talk about taking care of themselves, they usually talk about things like sleeping, exercising, taking a break, going outside or spending time with friends.
And obviously, those things are important.
But maybe there is another version of it.
Maybe sometimes you should also take your own thoughts seriously.
If something has been sitting in your head the entire day, maybe give yourself twenty minutes to figure it out.
Not because you have to.
Not because it is productive.
Just because you are curious.
I think we sometimes treat curiosity like a distraction.
“I should be doing something else.”
Maybe sometimes we should just let ourselves explore.
You don’t have to know everything
I don’t think the goal is to become the person who knows everything.
That’s impossible.
And honestly, it would probably be boring.
I like the idea of simply being comfortable with saying:
“I don’t know.”
And then:
“But I can find out.”
That second part is important.
Not knowing something is normal.
Staying curious about it is a choice.
So the next time you have one of those random questions in your head, maybe don’t immediately ignore it.
Write it down.
Look it up.
Try something.
Ask someone.
Spend some time on it.
Maybe it will turn out to be completely useless.
Maybe it will lead somewhere interesting.
Maybe you will discover something that changes the way you think about a bigger problem.
Or maybe you will simply get that little feeling of:
“Okay, now I know.”
And honestly, I think that is reason enough.
References
Kedrick, K. K., et al. (2023). The multifaceted role of self-generated question asking in curiosity-driven learning. Cognitive Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13253
Loewenstein, G. (1994). The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation. Psychological Bulletin, 116(1), 75–98. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.116.1.75