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Alright, I've heard this phrase many times around here. What is intellectual curiosity? How is it different from just curiosity in general? What does the "inte
by statictype 17y ago
Alright, I've heard this phrase many times around here.
What is intellectual curiosity? How is it different from just curiosity in general? What does the "intellectual" qualifier bring to the statement?
- raganwald 17y agoI have no idea how to define it! I can give some examples of what it is and what it isn't, in my opinion. For example, anything that kind of shakes up my worldview of how something works is usually it. Gossip about which tech personality is an asshole SEO arbitrageur is usually not it. I'm reminded of a story I read in one of Smullyan's books. A teacher is giving a mathematics lesson, and he gives the students a problem: "Prove that such-and-such is so-and-so. Any questions?" One of the students raises his hand. "Sir, what is a proof? How do we know whether a proof is any good or not?" It turns out that although the idea of a proof is relatively easy to grok and to use, proving whether something is a proof or not is extraordinarily difficult. The story comes to mind for two reasons: First, because "intellectual curiosity" is like "proof," easy to grok but difficult to define precisely. And second, because now you've piqued my intellectual curiosity: Is it possible to write a program that does a good job of flagging off-topic stories?