Turning Fear of Failure into Increments of Curiosity

When I was younger, I badly wanted to live in Japan. Japan is a country with very strict immigration laws, but my university had an exchange program where you could go spend a semester and study in another country. There was only one problem: the Japanese university they had a partnership with was one of … Read More

The science of curiosity: why we keep asking “why”

Children have an incredibly inquisitive mind. “Why?” they keep asking. They explore new things for no other reason except that they just want to know. Researchers tried to figure out how often kids ask questions. Turns out, a lot: on average, children ask 107 questions per hour! But it seems that as adults we tend … Read More

How to turn problems into a curiosity engine

The human mind is extremely averse to ambiguity and uncertainty. We are hardwired to seek answers — even if they’re incomplete or wrong — and most societies consider having answers as more valuable than having questions. Look around you: the overt objective of many jobs is to provide answers. After going through an interview process … Read More

Some hard truths about soft skills

The definition of “soft skills” on Wikipedia feels like it’s been written by a very confused person. According to the page, soft skills are a combination of things such as social intelligence and emotional intelligence, people skills, social skills and communication skills, personality traits, and even career attributes. The article goes onto listing courtesy, flexibility, … Read More

Learning how to learn

We spend years of our lives attending school, but there are many life skills missing from the typical curriculum. Critical thinking, constructive conversations, handling money, business writing, time management, and self-care are just but a few. Another skill we don’t spend enough time honing is learning how to learn. It’s a shame, because there are … Read More