The instrument: a screwdriver from his dad’s tool box. The boy took his time to find the proper size: his hands were not yet the size of his dad’s so the tool needed to properly fit in his diminutive palm. Yet if the tool was too small, the head of the driver would not fit properly into the specimen’s joints.

The specimen: a toy that the boy and his brother no longer played with. Its primary purpose no longer needed, it would become the article to satisfy the boy’s curiosity.

The curiosity: why did the toy move in the ways that it did? What were the controllable forces that made it transform into something else? What was hiding beneath the metal and plastic? What secrets did it possess?

The room: the boy had been sent to his room once again. He broke an adult rule that he didn’t intend to break. Yet in a time before the Internet and mass-produced VCRs and TVs, his only refuge was his own mind. In his room he became a rockstar, singing to thousands of adoring fans. He became the wide receiver catching the last-second pass. He became King Arthur, The Hardy Boys, and Max. Today he would become Sherlock Holmes.

The inspection: He started with the limbs. He carefully removed each screw from its harness. Every screw was then put aside. Luckily, they were all the same size, so it would not matter how they returned to their resting place. After the limbs’ armor was removed, he unscrewed the head. Finally, the pièce de résistance: the body. It was here that the toy would unfurl its mysteries.

The answer: With the screws, metal, and plastic removed, the boy understood the toy’s purpose and story. He smiled. Now he was part of the toy’s story. He silently thanked the toy for allowing him to uncover its secrets. With precision and utmost care, the boy reassembled the toy. His curiosity had been satisfied.

Humans are born curious. We ask questions. We investigate. We taste, smell, see, hear, and touch to understand our individual connections with the world. Yet somewhere between the schooling, working, and maturing, we lose this innate trait.

Asking questions is messy. The person to whom we are asking the question may take offense to the question being asked. In a time when every question can be answered on Wikipedia and/or Google, some people do not enjoy people asking them questions.They expect the questioner to learn his answer through passive learning. Yet I would argue that by using active questioning and answering, we build trust and loyalty between the two groups while continuing to harness that curiosity.

Curiosity leads to innovation. The taking of something brilliantly created and transforming it into something more brilliantly created. Just as creativity should not be stifled, innovation should not be myopic. Everyone shouldn’t code. Or write. Or build, produce, sell, research, cure. Even worse is the mentality that we should be boring and conservative with our innovation.

The universe was made to be unscrewed. It wants its stories told. We humans must continue to harness our curiosity trait to taste, smell, see, hear, and touch those stories. The universe wants to satisfy our curiosity.