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

A fun yet provocative look at the importance of staying curious in an increasingly indifferent world

Everyone is born curious. But only some retain the habits of exploring, learning, and discovering as they grow older. Those who do so tend to be smarter, more creative, and more successful. But at the very moment when the rewards of curiosity have never been higher, it is misunderstood and undervalued, and increasingly monopolized by the cognitive elite. A curiosity divide is opening up.

InCurious, Ian Leslie makes a passionate case for the cultivation of our desire to know. Drawing on fascinating research from psychology, economics, education, and business, Leslie looks at what feeds curiosity and what starves it, and finds surprising answers. Curiosity is a mental muscle that atrophies without regular exercise and a habit that parents, schools, and workplaces need to nurture.

Filled with inspiring stories, case studies, and practical advice,Curiouswill change the way you think about your own mental life, and that of those around you.

Ian Lesliewrites on psychology, social trends, and politics for publications in the UK and US, includingSlate,The Economist, NPR, Bloomberg.com,The Guardian,Daily Mail, theTimes,Daily Telegraph, andGranta. He lives in London.
Leslie...writes convincingly...about the human need and desire to learn deeply and develop expertise. Wall Street Journal
Leslie delineates the various types of curiosity and what might be lost as we lean on search engines and offload our memories to cloud storage. He's at his best when considering how socioeconomic conditions impede curiosity.
New York Times Book Review A refreshingly commonsensical voice in the ongoing argument over how to best mold human minds.
Scientific American Mind Ian Leslie's fine new book Curious lƒ½