I'm not sure if it is a natural disposition but from a very early age, I would try taking apart any device within reach and study its different components.
Naturally, the device will stop functioning if I was successful in taking it apart. My success rate on successfully fixing it back together was below 30%.
In many cases, I wasn't able to put it back together again despite spending a week or more on it. This was quite frustrating to say the least but it didn't stop me from putting my eyes on the inside of these devices.
A particular episode that made me lose much of this tendency to take devices apart was when I had a smartphone and endeavoured to modify the software.
By this time, I understood much about the hardware. They've become sophisticated and operating on them was no piece of cake for me.
Software was easy, especially if one knows the terminologies. Besides, it didn't require any tools(physical).
This device was a Samsung S series, probably S3. Mind you, it was new and there was nothing wrong with it. I just felt like tweaking the software through modifying the operating system.
But what a nightmare it was! After installing the new OS, the device pretty much became unusable. It kept crashing, overheating and the network signal disappeared into oblivion.
Panick stricken, I rushed to the repair stores and they told me the problem was with the machine(hardware) which needed to be changed. This cost nearly as much as the smartphone itself.
I figured they didn't fully understand the problem so I went back home and try reverting it back to the previous operating system. After many unsuccessful attempts, it worked.
Everything went back to normal except the dissappearance of the network signal. This never came back. Which meant no calls, messages or mobile data connection on this device for eternity.
The Nature Of Curiosity
A dictionary defines curiosity as 'the tendency to ask and learn about things by asking questions'. I'll say it is simply the ability to explore the unknown.
When we look at the evolution from childhood to adulthood in terms of curiosity, we realise that there's often a general and gradual decrease of it as we grow older.
Children are naturally curious and most of their vibrant energy is geared towards exploring. With their small hands, they will 'touch' everything that's touchable around them, which can be quite disastrous at times.
Adults are seemingly less curious compared to children. Considering that every adult was once a child. One could say that adults have passed the peak of curiosity and moved on to other abilities.
One could also say that the opportunity to be curious reduces as we become adults. With all the responsibilities of adulthood such as survival, there's little to no time to be curious.
Or one could also say that curiosity evolves in adulthood and it stops being overt like with a child. Instead of touching objects with our hands, we touch and explore them(and subjects) with our mind.
Whatever the case may be, curiosity doesn't leave adults but adults leave curiosity depending on the circumstances they stumble on.
Oftentimes, the reason why we stopped being curious is because as we don't find a thing that catches our attention and ignites our curiosity as we evolve.
Luckily, this wonderfully complex world has its own ways of reigniting it back.
Basically, curiosity allows us to fathom and make sense of our environment. Which is a key part of individual growth and evolution.
Learning And Innovation
Interestingly, curiosity is an active principle that requires an active attitude. One just can't sit down and do nothing when they're curious.
The common and standard approach with the learning process is that of a teacher and a student. The teacher gives knowledge and the student receives.
Learning and innovation are closely related concepts that both involve curiosity and an active attitude. With curiosity, there is the desire to know more about something.
But it is not enough to just passively receive information from a teacher or a source; one has to actively engage with it through questioning and/or applying the information. This is how learning becomes meaningful and effective. Also, how innovation is facilitated.
Innovation is the outcome of being curious and learning new things. It is an active process of creating something new or improving something existing by using one's acquired knowledge coupled with creativity.
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