Is it possible to be too curious?
Come on… aren’t you a little bit curious???
So we know that curiosity killed the cat, but can it kill you? More specifically, can it kill your career, future, or startup?
Over the past few months, I’ve thought about creativity and having many interests in a few different lights — from being able to code-switch, becoming a polymath, and simply being a waste of time (is being too curious even possible?!?). In this post, I’ll briefly talk about my experiences with all three of these ideas and tie together curiosity’s impact on your career, future, and (most importantly) startup endeavors. Because let’s face it: for entrepreneurs, curiosity isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s a necessity.
As a side note: The rest of the images for this article will be generated from DALL-E 2 as I’ve been loving learning about AI as of late! The caption will be my prompt.
How do you know if you’re “too curious”?
Before I get into how being this type of person can affect your life, I should probably qualify who I’m talking about here first.
Google’s definition of curiosity is one with “a strong desire to know or learn something”. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. I am talking about people who aren’t just deeply curious about one or two subjects, but rather curious about everything. As if you have a toddler in your head constantly asking ‘why?’.
Allow me to chime in personally then I’ll give you a couple of definitions. I like to read, surf, cook, ski, play guitar, golf, learn about AI, and listen to country music. I am majoring in economics yet minoring in art history. I love to watch sports, rom-coms, and true crime. On any given day you can find me watching YouTube videos about new developments in technology and academic fields, the history of cheese, or stand-up comedy. I’ve read books on real estate, technical analysis in stock trading, and venture capital. I’m a black belt in MMA, an eagle scout, and a writer of blog posts. I literally started writing this blog post at the same time as two other posts. I am currently bouncing back and forth paragraph after paragraph between writing three different blog posts because I thought they would be interesting to write about. I am a curious person. But what does all this mean?
It means you might be a scanner like me. What’s that?
I’ll insert a quote from Barbara Sher here from her blog post Are You a Scanner?:
Intense curiosity about numerous unrelated subjects is one of the most basic characteristics of a Scanner. Scanners are endlessly inquisitive. In fact, Scanners often describe themselves as being hopelessly interested in everything (although, as you’ll find out, this isn’t so). A Scanner doesn’t want to specialize in any of the things she loves, because that means giving up all the rest. Some even think that being an expert would be limiting and boring.
Our society frowns on this apparent self-indulgence. Of course, it’s not self- indulgence at all; it’s the way Scanners are designed, and there’s nothing they can or should do about it. A Scanner is curious because he is genetically programmed to explore everything that interests him. If you’re a Scanner, that’s your nature. Ignore it and you’ll always be fretful and dissatisfied.
I truly encourage you to read her whole article if any of that resonated with you. And if it did, isn’t it great to know you’re not alone?!?! Ok, let’s charge forward. How does being a scanner, or overly-curious person, impact your life?
Here are some pros to being someone who’s ultra-curious:
1. You will have a super easy time code-switching
Harvard Business Review defines codeswitching as:
…adjusting one’s style of speech, appearance, behavior, and expression in ways that will optimize the comfort of others in exchange for fair treatment, quality service, and employment opportunities.
It is usually referred to in terms of minorities having to code-switch to be treated fairly in the workspace, but code-switching can be done all the time and by everyone.
I never understood it. I would go on hikes with my nature-loving friends because I love to be outdoors, play video games for hours on end because I love to be indoors, be alone because I love solitude, and be with friends because I love social interaction. I never understood ‘code-switching’ because I never had to code-switch. I never had to pretend to be someone else because I am so many people — a technologist, a chess player, a window shopper, a chef.
Researchers have noted that to most, code-switching has a psychological impact in raising stress levels or getting feelings of being drained after pretending to be someone else. From my own experience at least, this doesn’t happen to scanners. We don’t get drained pretending to be people we aren’t because we have so many interests! This is great! (Don’t worry we’ll get into the drawbacks later, but let’s savor this win while we’re here).
2. You might be a polymath?
What the heck is a polymath? A polymath is the contemporary adjective for a Renaissance Man, or as Google puts it, “a person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning”. Polymaths throughout history include Leonardo DaVinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Marie Curie while modern-day ones may be the likes of Elon Musk and Steve Jobs.
Did you know that the phrase “A jack of all trades is a master of none” is actually ended with “but oftentimes better than a master of none”? It was meant to be a good thing!
I’ve always liked to think of myself as a man of many hats. But unfortunately, this doesn’t mean I’m the next great polymath. However, I bring this up because a scanner, in my view, has a much higher likelihood of being a polymath simply due to their wide range of interests. A polymath, by definition, cannot be someone who sticks to one field for their entire life. So, if you aren’t the next DaVinci, what does this practically mean? Well, summing up a long article from Observer.com about polymaths, the main benefits boil down to creating a unique skill set that can get you higher pay, make you more flexible, and future-proof your career. So even if you aren’t going to create the next world-changing company, these are some fantastic added benefits!
3. We quit more. Wait, isn’t that a bad thing?
I find myself personally bouncing around from idea to idea, new challenge to new challenge, constantly setting new goals, changing interests, and more. I also always thought this was bad. If I could just stick to one thing and become an expert my life would be so much easier! I’d think to myself — but that’s just not who I am. Barbara Sher also talks about scanner’s non-commital woes in her article (another reason why you should read it if this resonates with you).
Annie Duke talks about the benefits of quitting in her article Why Quitting is Underrated. Basically, she describes how the sunk cost fallacy makes people stay unhappy in their jobs instead of quitting. Research showed that those who took the risk, despite their sunk costs, were much happier. So maybe being someone who likes to switch projects so often isn’t such a bad thing?
Contrary to popular belief, winners quit a lot. In fact, that’s how they win. - Annie Duke
Can you become a scanner?
That’s a great question. I don’t think you can become a scanner in the same way you can’t just become someone with ADHD if you don’t already have it. However, you can give yourself a leg up and some parity with the ultra-curious out there by educating yourself as much as possible. Watch that random documentary. Read that article your grandpa sent you. Learn a new useless skill. Learn a new useful one!
One actionable tip I can give you is to read newsletters. They are low-effort, high-reward ways to learn more every day! I personally created an entirely separate email just for newsletters that I read each day. Mine are mostly about startups and tech, but yours can be about anything! I even subscribed to one on global affairs simply because I wanted to learn.
Ok Luca, so what are the drawbacks?
Ah yes. The cons. There are a couple that I’ll briefly touch on here. The first is that you may be too inclined to quit or move to your next project. There is something to be said for perseverance, and I don’t want the previous section on quitting to be misread as an excuse to give up the second something isn’t working.
Second, you might be slower to learn any one thing. Keyword: one. This is because you are probably trying to teach yourself five different things at once. In my opinion, this is okay because you are still learning at a fast rate, just many topics at once. But this is something that you should keep in mind.
Lastly, some might say you waste more time than others. Now, let me be clear: I wouldn’t call this a waste of time, but some just might. The reason here is because, although a scanner is enthralled with endless learning (a truly good thing) inevitably some things that you learn are never going to be utilized in a productive manner. So that YouTube video you watched about Japanese fish markets, or that time you thought you were going to be a forensic scientist for a week may have been a slight waste of time.
Now, again I would argue that this still makes you a more interesting conversationalist, a more worldly person, and certainly a better Jeopardy! contestant, but some traditionalists might see this as unproductive to your final goal (whatever that is).
A Step Back
Ok, so we’ve talked about what a scanner is, the pros and cons of being one, if you can become one, and you’ve also found out that I watched a YouTube video on Japanese fish markets. Where do we go from here?
As some of you may know, I love startups. I love the inherent creativity that is associated with them. If you’re ideating a startup, you get to literally think of new ideas all day. If you’re running a startup, you are constantly getting creative to put out fires, save money, stay competitive, and so much more. And if you invest in startups as a venture capitalist, you get to hear about new technologies, industries, and startups all day long. So let’s talk about how curiosity affects your job as a VC or founder.
How being ultra curious helps VCs
This one is pretty simple. Being ultra-curious is one of a VCs best tools (and moats against other VC firms). Curiosity will enable them to find out about the next tech that will change the world, the app that is just released and will soon blow up, and more. This one’s easy. Being curious is great for a VC.
How being ultra curious helps founders
This one is a little more nuanced. I have a confession. At the beginning of this post, I stated that “Curiosity killed the cat” but I lied. I should point out that the quote curiosity killed the cat is missing a crucial part: the ending. The whole expression is curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. So, even if investigating is risky, the risk might be worth it! (Source) As a founder, curiosity will undoubtedly help you to come up with more and more novel startup ideas. As a scanner, they might be a little riskier than others’ ideas. This is great.
But as a founder, you should have the grit, tenacity, and perseverance to stick with your startup through thick and thin. How does a scanner’s temptation fare here? It is perfect. What?? How does this make sense? As a founder, you are constantly facing new problems and coming up with new solutions, and every day is different. I’d even go so far as to say that
No other job is better suited for a scanner than being an entrepreneur.
I hope you enjoyed this article on curiosity, startups, and more! I absolutely loved doing the research for this one — but I think you could’ve guessed that! See you next time :)
Hey, you! Yeah, you!
If you liked this and would like to read more, check out my last blog post in this series: Product Pitstop: How to fix BeFake!
About Me
Hey y’all!👋 My name is Luca. I’m a Partner @ Crescent Fund🌙 and a student @ UCLA. I love building, brainstorming🧠, and absolutely everything having to do with product and the startup world🚀.
Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn, Twitter, or my email — always happy to chat!
Sources:
- https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-of-codeswitching
- https://www.getmotivation.com/motivationblog/2017/04/barbara-sher-scanner/
- https://observer.com/2018/05/people-with-too-many-interests-more-likely-successful-polymath-entrepreneurship-antifragile/
- https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/curiosity-killed-the-cat-/4567264.html#:~:text=The%20whole%20idiom%20goes%20like,Curiosity%20does%20not%20kill%20it.
- https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/09/why-quitting-is-underrated/671562/
