I think everything in life is fractally complex and thus interesting if you’re willing to have a curious mind and look closely enough.

I suspect much of this comes from always having a background thread running that asks questions like “how does that work?”, “why does that work?”, “why is x the way it is?”, “where did that come from?”, etc.

The most seemingly-mundane things have a near-infinite amount of detail and surface area to explore, if you have a curious mind! I suspect that curiosity can be cultivated, although I can’t be sure of that, as I feel like I’ve always been curious about almost everything. But even that, right there, is another thing to be curious about! Can curiosity be cultivated? I suspect there are studies that have been done on this! There’s probably an entire rabbit hole field of psychology to explore on that topic alone.

-interlude to research that topic-

As an aside: what a great use case for LLMs. I typed “Are there any scientific studies exploring whether curiosity can be cultivated vs. being solely innate or learned at a young age?” into Claude and got a bunch of interest links to explore. I haven’t delved into all of them yet as I’m trying to get this essay written, but noting some here for posterity and future reference – and for anyone reading this to explore with curiosity:

• https://news.ucsb.edu/2025/021917/how-become-more-curious-person-according-new-research
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-10101-2
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7900967/
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4635443/
• https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/topics/policy-issues/future-of-education-and-skills/learning-compass-constructs/Curiosity.pdf
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11204781/

I suspect that when I allow my curiosity to take the lead, I’m a happier person. I’m more engaged with the world around me; I can find delight and interest in everyday things. How was this chair made? Why does puberty induce moodiness in teenagers? And on and on and on. Curiosity doesn’t even have to mean “I will find the answer to this”; it can simply be a state of wonder and imagining in my head. “How was this chair made?” Well, from looking at it, I can see that there are a few different materials, I can imagine how these pieces might be joined to these other pieces, etc. I can just explore in my mind, and immensely enjoy the not-knowing-but-gazing-with-wonder-and-interest state.

I also think this curiosity can help induce (curious: did I just use “induce” there because I’d used it a moment ago? Did I influence myself to re-use that word, or did I just pick it because it’s the right word here? I don’t know!) an appreciation for things that are outside of our area of expertise, our normal experience, etc. If I’m consistently curious and willing to explore e.g. “why is this traffic signal timed so poorly???”, rather than just “ugh, this is so stupid!”, maybe (likely!) I’ll discover there’s some legitimate reason behind it. Perhaps it really is poorly done, but being actually curious, approaching with wonder, might lead to me seeing the previously hidden incentive structures, tradeoffs, etc. that led to that reality. So then, when I encounter something I don’t at first understand in another area of life, even if I don’t have the time/resources/whatever to dive in and fully understand it, I’m much more likely to have a posture of grace and patience, because I might suspect there’s more going on than I can see, and I can more easily choose equanimity over frustration.

Go forth and be curious.