Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It

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Synopsis
The latest from Ian Leslie, the author of Born Liars, a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, is a fascinating look at the human characteristic of curiosity — our extraordinary capacity to take pleasure in discovering, learning, and understanding.Curious shows how the practice of “deep curiosity” — persistent, self-reflective seeking of knowledge and insight — is key to the success of our careers, the happiness of our children, the strength of our relationships, and the progress of societies. But it also argues that it is a fragile quality, which wanes and waxes over time, and that we take it for granted at our peril. Ian Leslie proposes that the Internet is opening up a “curiosity gap,” by exacerbating the divide between those with a large cognitive appetite, and those happy knowing no more than they have to know; between the curious and the incurious. He draws on many sources and stories to illustrate his points: Benjamin Franklin at Portsmouth Harbour studying the effect of oil on choppy waters; a bored Galileo distracting himself in a Pisa cathedral by observing the swinging of a recently lit lamp; Leonardo da Vinci doodling ideas in his notebook; Google co-founder Larry Page’s thoughts on the perfect search engine; the invention of the microwave oven; the advantages of your local bookseller over Amazon’s algorithms; a reassessment of Donald Rumsfeld’s defense strategy, and many more.Rich, textured, and exciting, Curious is a new take on the most absorbing human trait of all.
Copyright:
2014

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
320 Pages
ISBN-13:
9781770894044
Related ISBNs:
9781770894037, 9781770895003
Publisher:
House of Anansi Press Inc.
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Ian Leslie
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Psychology, Sociology
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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