On Curiosity (2000-)

 "Learning emerges from discovery, not directives; reflection, not rules; possibilities, not prescriptions; diversity, not dogma; creativity and curiosity, not conformity and certainty; and meaning, not mandates." (Stephanie P Marshall, "The Power to Transform: Leadership That Brings Learning and Schooling to Life", 2006)

"The complexities of the universe are reflected in the complexities of our brains and in that natural, intimate and solitary activity that we call mind. In this process of matching up and representing, the inexhaustible human curiosity accepts the ancestral challenge of exploring the enormity of what we have yet to know. Chess, a world of fixed rules but with almost infinite borders, is an approachable model of that profound and endless human search." (Diego Rasskin-Gutman, "Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind", 2009)

"There is no way to guarantee in advance what pure mathematics will later find application. We can only let the process of curiosity and abstraction take place, let mathematicians obsessively take results to their logical extremes, leaving relevance far behind, and wait to see which topics turn out to be extremely useful. If not, when the challenges of the future arrive, we won’t have the right piece of seemingly pointless mathematics to hand." (Peter Rowlett, "The Unplanned Impact of Mathematics", Nature Vol. 475 (7355), 2011)

"What makes a mathematician is not technical skill or encyclopedic knowledge but insatiable curiosity and a desire for simple beauty. […] Part of becoming a mathematician is learning to ask such questions, to poke your stick around looking for new and exciting truths to uncover." (Paul Lockhart, "Measurement", 2012)

"Machines that replace physical labor have allowed us to focus more on what makes us human: our minds. Intelligent machines will continue that process, taking over the more menial aspects of cognition and elevating our mental lives toward creativity, curiosity, beauty, and joy. These are what truly make us human, not any particular activity or skill like swinging a hammer - or even playing chess." (Garry Kasparov, "Deep Thinking", 2017)

"If we don’t understand the statistics, we’re likely to be badly mistaken about the way the world is. It is all too easy to convince ourselves that whatever we’ve seen with our own eyes is the whole truth; it isn’t. Understanding causation is tough even with good statistics, but hopeless without them. [...] And yet, if we understand only the statistics, we understand little. We need to be curious about the world that we see, hear, touch, and smell, as well as the world we can examine through a spreadsheet." (Tim Harford, "The Data Detective: Ten easy rules to make sense of statistics", 2020)

"Those of us in the business of communicating ideas need to go beyond the fact-check and the statistical smackdown. Facts are valuable things, and so is fact-checking. But if we really want people to understand complex issues, we need to engage their curiosity. If people are curious, they will learn." (Tim Harford, "The Data Detective: Ten easy rules to make sense of statistics", 2020)