Curiosity Is a Superpower — If You Have the Courage to Use It Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hollywood producer Brian Grazer's grandmother changed his life when she told him curiosity would be his greatest attribute as long as he maintained the courage to use it. Grazer's latest book, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, maps his life's journey of courage and curiosity. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BRIAN GRAZER: Academy Award-winning producer and NYT bestselling author Brian Grazer has been making movies and television programs for more than 25 years. Grazer’s films and TV shows have been nominated for a total of 43 Oscars and 152 Emmys. His films have generated over $13.5 billion in worldwide grosses. Grazer has been personally nominated for four Academy Awards, and in 2002 he won the Best Picture Oscar for A Beautiful Mind. Other film credits include Get On Up, Rush, J. Edgar, Frost/Nixon, American Gangster, The Da Vinci Code, 8 Mile, Apollo 13, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Liar Liar, Backdraft, Parenthood, and Splash. Grazer’s television productions include Fox’s breakout hit Empire, and Emmy award winning series 24 and Arrested Development; and NBC’s Parenthood and Friday Night Lights. Grazer also produced the 84th Annual Academy Awards show for ABC. Grazer and his longtime friend and business partner Ron Howard founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986, which they continue to run together as chairmen. His latest book is titled A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT: Brian Grazer: It began when I was a kid and my grandmother, grandma Sonya, probably about this high, said to me that curiosity would you be my greatest attribute and it would be a superpower in my life and all I had to do was just have the courage to use it. I remember looking at one of my report cards and it was basically all F's and she saying, "You're going to be special. You're going all the way." And she's telling me how great I'm going to be. But I'm looking at this report card in her presence and there was just no empirical evidence whatsoever to me that that would ever transpire. And then out of college I thought how can I apply this in a bigger way? And I had this one outstanding professor in my entire four years at USC and his name was Dr. Milton Wolpin, who was a graduate professor of abnormal psychology at USC. And I'm now two weeks out of college and I thought I want to get together with Dr. Milton Wolpin because I was just one of 300 kids in this class, and of course had never had a chance to really introduce myself. So I pursued him unable to get this meeting, so I thought I'm just going to show up at school again and wait for him to leave his class. And he leaves his class and I say, "Dr. Wolpin, I would really like to just have 10 minutes, a coffee with you. I don't really have any big asks beyond that other than 10 minutes." He said, "But Brian haven't you already graduated?" And I said, "Well I have graduated, but I'd just love to have a coffee with you." Anyway he agreed. And I turned that 10 minutes, I expanded it into about an hour and a half conversation, which had greater value for sure than the year I spent in that classroom. And for over 30 years, actually about 35 years, I've been doing this every two weeks meeting a new person in any subject other than entertainment. So science, medicine, politics, religion, every art form. And I've just been doing it and it really has expanded my universe physically and mentally. It's created opportunities that I never even thought existed in my life or would exist. And so that's kind of the sense of the breadth of what I've been doing. Hollywood producer Brian Grazer's grandmother changed his life when she told him curiosity would be his greatest attribute as long as he maintained the courage to use it. Grazer's latest book, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, maps his life's journey of courage and curiosity.

Susan Engel, a lecturer in Williams College's psychology department and the Class of 1959 Director of the Program in Teaching, explores "The Hungry Mind: The Origins of Curiosity." Delivered July 18, 2011, as part of the Williams Thinking lecture series.

Award-winning writers take the stage to share their quirky, engrossing, and sometimes shocking insights about human anatomy and social psychology. Mary Roach, widely regarded as one of the country’s greatest popular science writers, brings her infectious wit to a conversation with psychologist Maria Konnikova and journalist Jennifer Ackerman. Join us for an evening of laughter and unexpected revelations as these sparkling authors discuss how they transform complicated science into engaging literature. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for all the latest from WSF. Visit our Website: http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/ Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/worldscience... Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/WorldSciFest Original Program Date: June 4, 2016 MODERATOR: John Hockenberry PARTICIPANTS: Jennifer Ackerman, Maria Konnikova, Janna Levin, Mary Roach John Hockenberry's Introduction 00:05 Participant Introductions 5:33 What is on the mind of science writers? 8:05 Birds are geniuses 14:56 Nature modeling how to prepare for climate change 19:24 A scientific look at the humanistic side of the military 24:54 The psychology behind your book The Confidence Game 32:27 Does Trump violate the perimeters of virtue and significance? 38:49 Combining the arts and sciences 49:40 Is creative constraint as good as it is bad? 1:00:00 White Noise by Don Delillo 1:09:32 How can we move away from teaching communicating science and move to instilling a love of science? 1:15:17 How did you convince the New York Times into thinking confidence games are interesting? 1:17:45 What is your experience in presenting science to special needs children 1:21:35 The balance of accuracy and story what is your responsibility as a writer? 1:27:55 What is your process in science writing? 1:32:40

In his latest book "Why?" Mario Livio, astrophysicist and bestselling author describes the latest research in psychology and neuroscience that explores the origin and mechanisms of human curiosity. He weaves current findings with stories of such paragons of curiosity as Leonardo da Vinci and Richard Feynman, and also includes interviews with Brian May, Noam Chomsky, and others who discuss what drove them to be at the top of their fields. Get the book here: https://goo.gl/YB9Bpa

Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's an important difference among the ways we approach our own lack of knowledge. When we want to know something, are we satisfied once we've found the answer? Do we stop reading the detective novel once we've discovered who committed the crime, or are we suddenly intrigued by new questions? Psychological researcher Suzanne Hidi says this difference — between curiosity and interest — can help us understand why some people appear far more motivated and engaged in their lives than others. Are you curious in life, or are you interested? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUZANNE HIDI: Suzanne E Hidi is a Founding Fellow of the Senior College at the University of Toronto where she was an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology. She taught courses on cognitive and developmental psychology, as well as conducted academic writing and research. Her most current research and publications focus on motivational issues in general and the power of interest to motivate and engage in specific. She also advocates for the integration of psychological and neuroscientific research on important issues such as the effect of rewards on human activities. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT: Suzanne Hidi: Curiosity has been often referred to as closing a knowledge gap. And this goes back to [Daniel] Berlyne's work, goes back to a lot of work being done by [Jordan] Litman and his colleagues presently — would distinguish between two forms of curiosity: interest, epistemic curiosity and knowledge gap curiosity; deprivation they call it. The reason that they call it deprivation is because there has been an argument that if you are curious, there is a certain kind of negative feeling that you experience before your curiosity is satisfied. And once you have this answer, you feel a relief and a positive feeling comes over you. We argue that if you are interested and you are searching for more information, that is a rewarding experience and you do not necessarily or you are unlikely to have an aversive feeling, except you can have negative feelings develop because you have a problem in your search. But that's different than trying to close a knowledge gap. The way that I can best demonstrate [to] you how we consider curiosity and interest to be different is by telling you to think about when you read a detective story. When you read a detective story, the minute you find out who actually is the murderer, you might not even want to finish your book. And compare that to reading, let's say, Harry Potter or some really well-constructed book that you're not simply trying to find out a knowledge gap; you are interested in many of the characters; you are interested in the ideas; you are interested in the relationships; and you will keep on reading that book. Not only is the length of time different and the aversion different, but there are also — the purpose is different. Like when you are interested, you are searching for a lot of information, not just a specific information to close the knowledge gap. Now, there are some unanswered issues about this. For example, what happens if you have interest in a content, but there is a knowledge gap that you're closing; is that now different from just being curious? And we argue that it is. Because, for example, take a bridge expert who loves playing bridge; he is reading a book with many, many puzzles, solving bridge hands. He goes and solves a knowledge gap and then continues going on to other questions, other puzzles because he has that individual interest in the content that propels him to go on for further activity. There's an important difference among the ways we approach our own lack of knowledge. When we want to know something, are we satisfied once we've found the answer? Do we stop reading the detective novel once we've discovered who committed the crime, or are we suddenly intrigued by new questions? Psychological researcher Suzanne Hidi says this difference — between curiosity and interest — can help us understand why some people appear far more motivated and engaged in their lives than others. Are you curious in life, or are you interested?

Why does the rain fall down? How did my paint water turn green? What makes flowers grow in spring? Children are naturally curious. They question everything around them. One recent survey suggested that preschool aged children ask between 200-400 questions per day. Children are born to be little learners. We know that questioning is a critical part of thinking and problem solving. However, as parents and teachers, these curious minds provide us with a fragile opportunity. Our reactions to their questions give us a chance to either encourage or stifle learning. The same survey found that by the time children are nine they are asking only about 140 questions per day. Often that number will continue to drop as they go through school. This video will focus on helping parents and teachers understand how to respond to questions and kindle the fire of wonder and curiosity.

Humans are curious creatures but what does wonder actually do to the brain? Follow Us! https://twitter.com/LifeNoggin https://facebook.com/LifeNoggin Click here to see more videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/lifenoggin Life Noggin is a weekly animated educational series. Whether it's science, pop culture, history or art, we explore it all and have a ton of fun doing it. Life Noggin Team: Animation by Steven Lawson Director/Voice: http://lifenogg.in/patgraziosi Executive Producer: http://lifenogg.in/IanDokie Director of Marketing: http://lifenogg.in/JaredOban Written by: https://www.youtube.com/coconutcab Sources: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/curiosity-prepares-the-brain-for-better-learning/ http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/10/24/357811146/curiosity-it-may-have-killed-the-cat-but-it-helps-us-learn