I’d like to start off with a quick
survey in the audience here so just by
show of hands how many of you are
familiar with this little monkey up here
also known as Curious George okay
awesome and how many of you are familiar
with Brendon Stanton’s books humans of
New York or maybe follow the homey pages
on Instagram or Facebook okay great
awesome so these two things both service
major symbols of curiosity which is
pretty transparent and Curious George
and a lot of ring a little bit more on
them later but for now look to start off
with an introduction so hi everyone my
name is Erin Stockton I’m a junior here
at openal and as many who know me know
pretty well I’ve been very invested in
TEDx for a few years now I participated
in some of the ninth grade at my middle
school and I knew it was something I
wanted to rent it with Knoll so within
my first few months year I met with the
deans and talked to them about how we go
about making it happen here I’ll spare
you the long list of logistics and
everything that went into getting the
license gather interest and all that
super fun stuff but what I will say is
that last year what we gathered our crew
producers and presenters we sat down at
our very first meeting and went about
our very first order of business which
was picking an umbrella topic or general
theme from which everyone stalks to dry
after just a few minutes of sitting down
we decided that everyone’s talk would be
given in the form of a question more
specifically a question that started
with why from this came an extensive
exhibition of everyone’s creative and
intellectual thinking skills as topics
such as wide hierarchy why are you who
you are why do we worship celebrities
why competition and many many more began
to emerge but what was most interesting
about this whole process is not how
everyone takes such diverse topics but
how they came to that
curiosity seem to be so natural and even
more interesting about curiosity is the
benefits that they can have so curiosity
by definition according to
merriam-webster dictionary is simply the
desire to know and it’s an instinctive
quality whether you’re an average Joe or
a psychopath
I believe that everyone has a sort of
desire to know to learn more to expand
their horizons and this can only be
pursued through curiosity and there are
several benefits of curiosity that are
definitely enough to encourage anyone to
push themselves out of their comfort
zone and to wonder I stumbled upon a
2015 article published by the greater
good at the University of California
Berkeley during my research which stated
the six surprising benefits of curiosity
which are as follows curiosity helps us
survive curious people are happier
curiosity boost achievement and expands
our at the thief curiosity can expand
our relationships and last but not least
curiosity can improve healthcare now I
feel that there’s some truth to each
these benefits so let’s walk through
them a little bit starting with number
one curiosity helps us survive now I was
a little taken aback by this one at
first but hear me out
so if we take ourselves back to the very
first people that walk the earth the
Homo erectus species that inhabit in
African lands but 1 to 2 million years
ago we have to keep in mind that they
were the real pioneers of humanity they
didn’t have any type of manual or
google.x resource health and live their
lives they were alone simply on their
curious
missions and desires to figure out how
to survive by creating fire finding food
building shelter and many other things
now I know that many of you out here
it’s pretty safe to say don’t need to
rely on air curious instincts to keep
you alive but naturally I believe the
curiosity has its benefits today as well
in this respect it for instance it
curiosity increases dopamine activity in
the brain which can also have beats
happiness so that would lead us right
into benefit number two the curiosity
make makes us happier because the
dopamine dopamine is again the
neurotransmitter in the brain that’s
directly associated with happiness and
it’s also known as the reward molecule
now on to the third method curiosity
boost achievement well there’s got to be
some truth behind that famous Wayne
Gretzky quote you miss 100% of the shots
you never take which essentially means
that if you don’t attempt you can’t
cheat which is pretty obvious but what’s
not so always this curiosity’s role in
this if you don’t attempt you can’t
achieve Shore but how can you attempt
with that desire curiosity fosters this
type of desire that we have and we’re
trying to explore new things in the
world it encourages us to become fuller
versions of ourselves and additionally
when I was researching for this talk I
stumbled upon another book it was a 2000
it was by famous film producer Brian
Grazer who is most well known for his
work in Apollo 13 The Da Vinci Code and
many other works I’m sure you’re
familiar with some of his titles and his
book was entitled
curious mind the secrets to a bigger
life well in this book he started off
with a quick story about how he found
his first job that eventually led to be
starter he just so happened to be
lounging around the Santa Monica
California apartment he overheard a
conversation between two men outside one
had just quit his job as a legal clerk
at Warner Brothers
so naturally he ran to the phone called
for one one found out the contact
information for the boss’s name that he
also overheard and the rest as they say
is history now in bracers case he owes
as a chief his extensive achievements to
curiosity not only considering that it
landed him a job but eventually his
utilization of curiosity and all of his
works eventually led to many Oscar wins
such as for one for a beautiful mind and
nominations for frost/nixon Apollo 13
and splash and the fourth benefit of
curiosity is becoming more and more
relevant with our expanding culture one
that revolves heavily around this
concept of shot in front now in this
concept it basically is saying that we
tend to find humor in misfortune of
others and someone who’s often on the
other side of that I can definitely
attest that people like to see other
people fail the past and in doing this
and having this become more popular or
empathy is actually decreasing it’s
becoming more of a foreign concept
people growing up in this generation are
going to have a difficult time
differentiating when to laugh its own
struggles and when it’s appropriate to
really empathize that keen curious
thinking skills helped define help
define what we should do in those
situations because in being more curious
about a person we’re more likely to ask
questions and hear about their struggles
from their perspective rather than
theirs jumping to conclusions and
laughing at them and now moving on to
the fifth
and of curiosity it helps relationships
so I’m not sure how the college process
works for many other schools across the
globe but here at Oak Knoll we have two
counselors and they always tell us the
most important thing you can do in an
interview is to ask questions at the end
and when you think about it it makes a
little defense I mean in asking
questions you’re turning the interview
from an interrogation to a more formal
conversation informal conversation
you’re learning more about each other
it’s not just the interviewer getting
information about the interviewee you’re
building a foundation of a relationship
with them and it’s making a more
pleasurable experience that they’ll note
in their reports later and this applies
for job interviews as well curiosity is
always key in interviews which can help
relationships last but certainly not
least curiosity can improve healthcare
now in this day and age we are plagued
by many diseases such as cancer and many
more that are becoming more and more
difficult for doctors to work with
because they can’t seem to find a cure
well in this line of work it’s
definitely required to push it not just
a little out of your comfort zone to
really see what can be possible and
achieved the greatest extent you if
you’re looking to discover new medicines
to discover a cure you have to be
curious a patient about the disease to
work as hard as you possibly can
after looking into all these benefits I
couldn’t help but be sold on curiosity I
mean it increases think it increases
commented thinking skills it is very
good and it takes to improve life so
what’s the matter why why is it such a
why isn’t it as popular concept as it
should be but then I couldn’t help but
think back to every person in the first
decade of my life from my parents to my
convert
there’s two children’s book authors who
warned me that curiosity killed the cat
and curious and curiosity was a
rebellious act of sorts
why could they do this I mean curiosity
is a great quality to have so why did
they try to diminish it when I was that
young in doing that they weren’t only
diminishing my curiosity but they were
potentially putting my creative thinking
skills at risk which is definitely not
something that you want to do when you
have a little child so back to those
examples from earlier one person who
didn’t listen to this adults who weren’t
and when he was younger his name Brian
Stann Bremen’s Brandon Stanton and for
those of you who aren’t familiar with
his work I’ll just provide a little
background so he started off as a bond
trader in Chicago yeah pretty good job I
mean for most people standards he was
successful but deep down he knew that
there’s passion that he wasn’t pursuing
he had this Drive he was so curious
about the world and its people and he
knew that he couldn’t pursue that from
behind a desk so what did he do he moved
up to New York with just a camera and
some questions and he began to interview
people on all corners of Manhattan
getting their stories ask them some
questions about their biggest dreams and
aspirations because failures anything
that more normal people might not get
from them just by passing them on the
street and looking at them and it’s
grown into quite a movement he’s form an
Instagram page a facebook page a blog
and has even published a couple books
the title he was in New York so without
curiosity Brandon engine would not have
had SAP would not have experienced such
great successes I mean sure from a
financial standpoint he might have been
successful at the stock job but he
wouldn’t have truly been happy you would
have known that there was this passion
that he wasn’t pursuing and
going to Reddit it for a long time now
many people aren’t like Stanton they shy
away from their curiosities and they’re
just scared of it altogether but I got
to thinking maybe we’re all a little bit
afraid of curiosity maybe that’s why
it’s so discouraged one of those
children and that’s why we could try to
raise them with as hair as much hair as
we can making sure that they are on the
right track and not off exploring all
these different curiosities but if
there’s one thing I’ve learned over
these past few months that is the
complete wrong thing to do we have to
nurture this children’s curiosity
because it helps them thrive we need to
learn how to do that I mean it’s not
just an instinctive quality but it’s
inevitable nothing is going to stop
curiosity in the words of Arnold
Edinboro curiosity is the very basis of
education and if you told me that
curiosity killed the cat I say only that
the cat died nobly there’s a reason for
this there’s a reason the curiosity is
so popular it shows like Curious George
because they not only advertise to
children the benefits of curiosity all
the adventures that they can find
themselves in but for the parents see it
also shows the risks of going irrational
of having a rational curiosity and doing
anything you want but it’s still
provides a safe amount of curiosity for
kids which is essential so if these
curiosities
if these curious urges are so ubiquitous
if they’re everywhere how will we know
how to find them and how can we find
them in a way that helps us achieve the
most benefits from curiosity as you can
well you only have so many tools
which you can embark on all of life’s
curious endeavors and despite its
perpetuity not every question can
possibly be answered curiosity is the
strongest tool of all in the words of
Plutarch the mind is not a vessel to be
filled but a fire to be kindled may all
your themes of curiosity forever remain
aglow and I hope you have a very
enjoyable rest of your evening good
night
you
survey in the audience here so just by
show of hands how many of you are
familiar with this little monkey up here
also known as Curious George okay
awesome and how many of you are familiar
with Brendon Stanton’s books humans of
New York or maybe follow the homey pages
on Instagram or Facebook okay great
awesome so these two things both service
major symbols of curiosity which is
pretty transparent and Curious George
and a lot of ring a little bit more on
them later but for now look to start off
with an introduction so hi everyone my
name is Erin Stockton I’m a junior here
at openal and as many who know me know
pretty well I’ve been very invested in
TEDx for a few years now I participated
in some of the ninth grade at my middle
school and I knew it was something I
wanted to rent it with Knoll so within
my first few months year I met with the
deans and talked to them about how we go
about making it happen here I’ll spare
you the long list of logistics and
everything that went into getting the
license gather interest and all that
super fun stuff but what I will say is
that last year what we gathered our crew
producers and presenters we sat down at
our very first meeting and went about
our very first order of business which
was picking an umbrella topic or general
theme from which everyone stalks to dry
after just a few minutes of sitting down
we decided that everyone’s talk would be
given in the form of a question more
specifically a question that started
with why from this came an extensive
exhibition of everyone’s creative and
intellectual thinking skills as topics
such as wide hierarchy why are you who
you are why do we worship celebrities
why competition and many many more began
to emerge but what was most interesting
about this whole process is not how
everyone takes such diverse topics but
how they came to that
curiosity seem to be so natural and even
more interesting about curiosity is the
benefits that they can have so curiosity
by definition according to
merriam-webster dictionary is simply the
desire to know and it’s an instinctive
quality whether you’re an average Joe or
a psychopath
I believe that everyone has a sort of
desire to know to learn more to expand
their horizons and this can only be
pursued through curiosity and there are
several benefits of curiosity that are
definitely enough to encourage anyone to
push themselves out of their comfort
zone and to wonder I stumbled upon a
2015 article published by the greater
good at the University of California
Berkeley during my research which stated
the six surprising benefits of curiosity
which are as follows curiosity helps us
survive curious people are happier
curiosity boost achievement and expands
our at the thief curiosity can expand
our relationships and last but not least
curiosity can improve healthcare now I
feel that there’s some truth to each
these benefits so let’s walk through
them a little bit starting with number
one curiosity helps us survive now I was
a little taken aback by this one at
first but hear me out
so if we take ourselves back to the very
first people that walk the earth the
Homo erectus species that inhabit in
African lands but 1 to 2 million years
ago we have to keep in mind that they
were the real pioneers of humanity they
didn’t have any type of manual or
google.x resource health and live their
lives they were alone simply on their
curious
missions and desires to figure out how
to survive by creating fire finding food
building shelter and many other things
now I know that many of you out here
it’s pretty safe to say don’t need to
rely on air curious instincts to keep
you alive but naturally I believe the
curiosity has its benefits today as well
in this respect it for instance it
curiosity increases dopamine activity in
the brain which can also have beats
happiness so that would lead us right
into benefit number two the curiosity
make makes us happier because the
dopamine dopamine is again the
neurotransmitter in the brain that’s
directly associated with happiness and
it’s also known as the reward molecule
now on to the third method curiosity
boost achievement well there’s got to be
some truth behind that famous Wayne
Gretzky quote you miss 100% of the shots
you never take which essentially means
that if you don’t attempt you can’t
cheat which is pretty obvious but what’s
not so always this curiosity’s role in
this if you don’t attempt you can’t
achieve Shore but how can you attempt
with that desire curiosity fosters this
type of desire that we have and we’re
trying to explore new things in the
world it encourages us to become fuller
versions of ourselves and additionally
when I was researching for this talk I
stumbled upon another book it was a 2000
it was by famous film producer Brian
Grazer who is most well known for his
work in Apollo 13 The Da Vinci Code and
many other works I’m sure you’re
familiar with some of his titles and his
book was entitled
curious mind the secrets to a bigger
life well in this book he started off
with a quick story about how he found
his first job that eventually led to be
starter he just so happened to be
lounging around the Santa Monica
California apartment he overheard a
conversation between two men outside one
had just quit his job as a legal clerk
at Warner Brothers
so naturally he ran to the phone called
for one one found out the contact
information for the boss’s name that he
also overheard and the rest as they say
is history now in bracers case he owes
as a chief his extensive achievements to
curiosity not only considering that it
landed him a job but eventually his
utilization of curiosity and all of his
works eventually led to many Oscar wins
such as for one for a beautiful mind and
nominations for frost/nixon Apollo 13
and splash and the fourth benefit of
curiosity is becoming more and more
relevant with our expanding culture one
that revolves heavily around this
concept of shot in front now in this
concept it basically is saying that we
tend to find humor in misfortune of
others and someone who’s often on the
other side of that I can definitely
attest that people like to see other
people fail the past and in doing this
and having this become more popular or
empathy is actually decreasing it’s
becoming more of a foreign concept
people growing up in this generation are
going to have a difficult time
differentiating when to laugh its own
struggles and when it’s appropriate to
really empathize that keen curious
thinking skills helped define help
define what we should do in those
situations because in being more curious
about a person we’re more likely to ask
questions and hear about their struggles
from their perspective rather than
theirs jumping to conclusions and
laughing at them and now moving on to
the fifth
and of curiosity it helps relationships
so I’m not sure how the college process
works for many other schools across the
globe but here at Oak Knoll we have two
counselors and they always tell us the
most important thing you can do in an
interview is to ask questions at the end
and when you think about it it makes a
little defense I mean in asking
questions you’re turning the interview
from an interrogation to a more formal
conversation informal conversation
you’re learning more about each other
it’s not just the interviewer getting
information about the interviewee you’re
building a foundation of a relationship
with them and it’s making a more
pleasurable experience that they’ll note
in their reports later and this applies
for job interviews as well curiosity is
always key in interviews which can help
relationships last but certainly not
least curiosity can improve healthcare
now in this day and age we are plagued
by many diseases such as cancer and many
more that are becoming more and more
difficult for doctors to work with
because they can’t seem to find a cure
well in this line of work it’s
definitely required to push it not just
a little out of your comfort zone to
really see what can be possible and
achieved the greatest extent you if
you’re looking to discover new medicines
to discover a cure you have to be
curious a patient about the disease to
work as hard as you possibly can
after looking into all these benefits I
couldn’t help but be sold on curiosity I
mean it increases think it increases
commented thinking skills it is very
good and it takes to improve life so
what’s the matter why why is it such a
why isn’t it as popular concept as it
should be but then I couldn’t help but
think back to every person in the first
decade of my life from my parents to my
convert
there’s two children’s book authors who
warned me that curiosity killed the cat
and curious and curiosity was a
rebellious act of sorts
why could they do this I mean curiosity
is a great quality to have so why did
they try to diminish it when I was that
young in doing that they weren’t only
diminishing my curiosity but they were
potentially putting my creative thinking
skills at risk which is definitely not
something that you want to do when you
have a little child so back to those
examples from earlier one person who
didn’t listen to this adults who weren’t
and when he was younger his name Brian
Stann Bremen’s Brandon Stanton and for
those of you who aren’t familiar with
his work I’ll just provide a little
background so he started off as a bond
trader in Chicago yeah pretty good job I
mean for most people standards he was
successful but deep down he knew that
there’s passion that he wasn’t pursuing
he had this Drive he was so curious
about the world and its people and he
knew that he couldn’t pursue that from
behind a desk so what did he do he moved
up to New York with just a camera and
some questions and he began to interview
people on all corners of Manhattan
getting their stories ask them some
questions about their biggest dreams and
aspirations because failures anything
that more normal people might not get
from them just by passing them on the
street and looking at them and it’s
grown into quite a movement he’s form an
Instagram page a facebook page a blog
and has even published a couple books
the title he was in New York so without
curiosity Brandon engine would not have
had SAP would not have experienced such
great successes I mean sure from a
financial standpoint he might have been
successful at the stock job but he
wouldn’t have truly been happy you would
have known that there was this passion
that he wasn’t pursuing and
going to Reddit it for a long time now
many people aren’t like Stanton they shy
away from their curiosities and they’re
just scared of it altogether but I got
to thinking maybe we’re all a little bit
afraid of curiosity maybe that’s why
it’s so discouraged one of those
children and that’s why we could try to
raise them with as hair as much hair as
we can making sure that they are on the
right track and not off exploring all
these different curiosities but if
there’s one thing I’ve learned over
these past few months that is the
complete wrong thing to do we have to
nurture this children’s curiosity
because it helps them thrive we need to
learn how to do that I mean it’s not
just an instinctive quality but it’s
inevitable nothing is going to stop
curiosity in the words of Arnold
Edinboro curiosity is the very basis of
education and if you told me that
curiosity killed the cat I say only that
the cat died nobly there’s a reason for
this there’s a reason the curiosity is
so popular it shows like Curious George
because they not only advertise to
children the benefits of curiosity all
the adventures that they can find
themselves in but for the parents see it
also shows the risks of going irrational
of having a rational curiosity and doing
anything you want but it’s still
provides a safe amount of curiosity for
kids which is essential so if these
curiosities
if these curious urges are so ubiquitous
if they’re everywhere how will we know
how to find them and how can we find
them in a way that helps us achieve the
most benefits from curiosity as you can
well you only have so many tools
which you can embark on all of life’s
curious endeavors and despite its
perpetuity not every question can
possibly be answered curiosity is the
strongest tool of all in the words of
Plutarch the mind is not a vessel to be
filled but a fire to be kindled may all
your themes of curiosity forever remain
aglow and I hope you have a very
enjoyable rest of your evening good
night
you
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