The positive feedback of seeking the interesting

I’m sometimes asked how to cultivate curiosity to improve one’s conversations.

There is a positive feedback loop that can arise when we notice we are interested. We are drawn to return to that place or to that situation. Unfortunately, we quickly tire of places and situations. To thrive, we need to find tension or newness with each visit.

If we look with curiosity at people who do not share our values, they become interesting rather than threatening. As I’ve grown older I’ve learnt that the world and the people in it are surprisingly interesting, and that the more you look and listen, the more interesting they become. Cultivating a questioning mind, of which conversation is the chief instrument, enriches our relationship with the world. Having a conversation with someone I may disagree with is, I have come to find, a great, life embracing pleasure.

~ Nick Cave from, https://www.theredhandfiles.com/bizarre-and-temporary-world/

I’m sometimes asked how to cultivate curiosity to improve one’s conversations. I’m intrigued by Cave’s positing that conversation is the chief instrument for cultivating a questioning mind.

Which comes first, curiosity or conversation?

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