Someone With True Intellectual Curiosity Often Thinks About 4 Things That Rarely Cross Most People's Minds
PeopleImages / Shutterstock There are plenty of smart people in the world, but true intellectual curiosity is rare. These are people who have more than a high IQ, they have an interest in others and the world. They never want to stop learning.
Real intellectual curiosity pushes people outside the boundaries of their day-to-day lives, opening them up to different cultures and experiences. It increases empathy for others, making these people endearingly humble. If you aspire to this virtue, you can start by thinking the way they do. Here are four topics to get you started.
People with true intellectual curiosity think about four things that rarely cross other people's minds:
1. The very nature of our existence
Intellectually curious people are often highly concerned with answering the question: why are we here? While many people aren't particularly interested in answering this question, or they find it too complex to even try to do it, people with true intellectual curiosity find this question to be highly stimulating.
To outsiders, it may seem like a pointless question. Who cares why we're here? Just live your life! But when you dive deep into the "why" behind our lives, you gain a bigger sense of purpose, one that often inspires you to make the world better.
From studying the literal philosophical movement of existentialism to wondering the purpose behind why they themselves are here, intellectually curious people want to know everything about existence. And while it does take a considerable amount of mental effort to ponder this giant topic, these people practice it like any other skill. Soon enough, they're adept at taking higher philosophical concepts and applying them to their daily lives.
2. The history behind everything
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While many people are focused on the here and now, people with genuine intellectual curiosity want to know the history behind everything. They want to understand not only why we're here but also how we got to where we are now. There's this almost intrinsic need to find the process and pattern that led to the formation of the present day wherever they may be in the world.
This person will be the one to read the description under a portrait at the art museum or ask questions about the architecture in a foreign land. They want to know why certain groups came to marginalize other groups or why two sovereign nations went to war with each other. They want to understand who has power and why. They're genuinely hungry for the knowledge on how things came to be.
To a simpler mind, this seems totally unneccessary, but these curious people don't want to miss the nuance. They want to understand. And when they do, they often become inspired to fix some of the wrongs from their culture's past so the world becomes better in the future.
3. People whose lives look completely different from their own.
It can be easy for most people to write off other people's lives and lifestyles as just not for them. This "stay in your lane" mindset is something that intellectually curious people refuse to adopt. They're actually quite interested in learning about other peoples' lives no matter how different they are from their own.
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This is because they see the inherent value in getting to know other peoples' perspectives regardless of their background. They know that if they truly want to expand their minds past max capacity, they have to spend time pondering outside perspectives that they may not have any experience with at all. Anything from asking locals in a foreign country about their lives to even asking people across the political aisle why they think the way they do.
4. Why they hold certain thoughts and opinions.
Lastly, people with true intellectual curiosity question themselves constantly, and this doesn't necessarily stem from insecurity. What's really going on is they want to know why they themselves think the way that they do about certain things or why they hold an opinion about something that may be completely different from what the people surrounding them believe.
While a lot of people would rather bulldoze through life holding steadfast to certain viewpoints, people with intellectual curiosity are just as fine observing their own thoughts and pondering them. Experts say that this is actually a sign of extremely high intelligence. After all what's more intellectually curious than maintaining curiosity for the world and oneself too?
Luke Aliga is a writer with a degree in Technical Writing and Communication who covers relationships, culture, and human-interest topics.
