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Think Like a 5-Year Old
- speeder 14y agoIt is funny, how "adults" think that this behavior is not acceptable. I am... very curious. I am all the time curious, I keep researching about everything. Sometimes I just stop, and keep looking at something, wondering how it works. One day for example, I remember that I was looking at the rain, seeing it splashing on a roof that I could see from where I was. I kept looking at how the raindrops shattered when hitting the hard surface. My then-girlfriend approached me, and asked: "what you are looking so much?" I explained to her my wonderings about the raindrops. Her reply was: "this is useless, drop it." The thing is, this was not a single incident, and not only with her, many times in my life, people tried to convince me to be LESS curious. I wonder why. I wonder why the sense or wonder, curiosity, wanting to learn, is viewed as childish or a thing to be hated, or as a time wasting activity.
- orangethirty 14y agoBecause people were told to grow up. Which is the worst thing you can do. You should instead mature and learn from experiences, but also keep that child like wonder about things. Such is the reason I love playing with my girls. They always manage to see things I cannot.
- josscrowcroft 14y agoTotally relate. My curiosity about things like: "Why do I feel like my hand touches something even though, on an atomic level, I'm sure it's still separated by space?" and "What if none of this was real?" have led my friends and family to assume I've gone crazy. The worst part? For a long time I believed them, and I'm sure part of me still does.. But with relation to the article, it occurs to me that these questions began in my mind around age 5 or 6. I think this is pretty common, too, but kids are told to focus on "important" things.
- trhtrsh 14y agoTo me, that's the best argument against curiosity. (I know it's not a perfect argument.) Because some questions don't have answers, or the answers are deeply troubling. That's why I regret how much I have pursued my curiousity about Human/artificial AI, evolutionary biology, the nature of religion, etc. Sometimes, it's better to be a bit innocent and ignorant (also respectful and nice, otherwise the world can get into trouble with violent religious zealots) -- no one gets psychically hurt that way.
- RivieraKid 14y ago> That's why I regret how much I have pursued my curiousity about Human/artificial AI, evolutionary biology, the nature of religion, etc. Can you elaborate?
- jimmaswell 14y agoThe conclusion that a consciousness is nothing but a series of mechanical interconnections, a machine that can be built or destroyed, fundamentally a kind of computer, and not something metaphysical, magical, or unexplainable, can be unsettling. Maybe that's what they meant?
- RivieraKid 14y agoInteresting, I came to an opposite conclusion using relatively logical and rational reasoning. There are really strong arguments suggesting that consciousness can't be explained as a complex interaction of physical particles. Hint: the core of the problem (and core of many, if not most, philosopical problems) is "What is the definition of consciousness?"
- jimmaswell 14y agoIf you can't define what a consciousness is then you can't claim it's impossible to explain physically. How can there be strong arguments supporting a hypotheses if fundamental parts of the hypothesis aren't defined?
- thejteam 14y ago“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” CS Lewis
- nsmartt 14y agoEnjoying a feeling is fine. I don't think anyone reasonable will take issue with that. I do, however, take issue with calling it curiosity. Curiosity is defined as a desire to learn something or know something. Even if you do want to know, the feeling you get from this hinges on not knowing-- if not, there's no harm in actually finding the answer, and there is harm in not finding it. Asking questions like this is fine, but, to me, calling it curiosity isn't. This isn't because it's childish. It's because it's unreasonable. Curiosity and reason are supposed to work together.
- willismichael 14y agoReminds me of the story of Richard Feynman deciding that he was just going to have fun with physics. He observed somebody in a cafeteria throwing a plate into the air, and noticed an interesting relationship between the plate's wobble speed and spin speed. He dug into the physics behind it, which an acquaintance told him was a waste of time. He didn't give it up, and later that research led to a nobel prize. http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~kilcup/262/feynman.html http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~kilcup/262/feynman.html
- 6ren 14y agoI wonder why, I wonder why I wonder why I wonder I wonder *why* I wonder why I wonder why I wonder -- RF
- chm 14y agoI am very grateful to my parents, who were always supportive and encouraging about keeping a curious mind. My dad once told me that the most important thing in the world for me to keep was my curiosity. Better be dead than dull.
- Swizec 14y agoI am very curious also. But man do people hate it when you're curious about their religion, politics or personal beliefs. Such a minefield ... don't "why" there unless you're ready to handle some very annoyed people.
- lotharbot 14y agoRelated: don't "why" about religion, politics, or personal beliefs unless you're willing to seriously examine a possibly very alien worldview. A lot of people have a shallow or false curiosity on these subjects. Their intent is not to understand, but simply to discover a question that is difficult to answer in only a few sentences, and then declare victory. The net result is that nobody learns anything of value, nobody is enriched, but somebody feels annoyed that their friend didn't respect them enough to really listen. True curiosity requires a willingness to explore both depth and breadth. This is more likely to require years than minutes.
- diego 14y agoThe answer to "this is useless, drop it" is "I'm enjoying it, so it's not useless."
- segmondy 14y agoI enjoy cartoons more than regular TV shows because they can be wild with the imagination. A lot of people think this is childish. They rather watch "Reality TV" shows.
- ARama 14y agoI'm the same, I watch a lot of anime because it sparks some great thoughts. What if the world was like X, what if we could do this, why is this like that etc. It gets me questioning a lot of things. It definitely gets my imagination going a lot more then reality shows like you said. ( although I do enjoy mellowing out and watching them every now and then )
- sunnybythesea 14y agoMy theory is that most people have been brainwashed to think that people who know everything (or at least appear to) are somehow superior to those who don't...poor suckers
- nakedrobot2 14y agoI certainly wouldn't like to suggest that drugs are the answer to everything, but they are the answer to some things... In this case, the author might be interested in smoking a HUGE JOINT and stepping into his office. He might find the same sense of curiosity as the five year-old. Magic mushrooms could also do this, but, like the five year-old for the day, might be a bit "more than you bargained for". Note: just as it's not a good idea for a five year-old to run a company, it is also not advisable to run a company while stoned/drunk/etc.
- knowtheory 14y agoBeing curious and thoughtful is not the same thing as being stoned. The point is not just the endless asking of questions, but rather not skipping the analysis of things you take for granted (or don't even realize you take for granted). The point is not to be a 5 year old, the point is to ask questions like a 5 year old and use that to better inform how you act.
- nakedrobot2 14y agoI beg to differ. Drugs, specifically the hallucinogenic types (and for this case I am also including marijuana in that category) or meditation (for the more enterprising and diligent) are the easiest way to extract yourself from the tunnel vision with which you see the world. In fact, I think most (say) 50 year old people who are "set in their ways" would find it VERY difficult to see the world with "new eyes" without some very strong outside stimulus, whether it is drugs, meditation, or some traumatic event.
- eitally 14y agoI'm pretty certain this article is a ripoff of Ricardo Semler's "3 Whys" technique he described in his book from 1995 (http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Success-Behind-Unusual-Workplace/dp/0446670553 http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Success-Behind-Unusual-Workpl...). Not that this is a bad thing, but there are many more, better articles describing this using more clinical language and providing guidance for real management application. Here are a couple of top Google results: http://www.managementexchange.com/blog/forget-empowerment-aim-exhilaration http://www.managementexchange.com/blog/forget-empowerment-ai... http://www.ict.swin.edu.au/personal/ebihari/ http://www.ict.swin.edu.au/personal/ebihari/ and even a version of The Art of War: http://www.worldmarkacademy.com/moodle/file.php/1/3.pdf http://www.worldmarkacademy.com/moodle/file.php/1/3.pdf
- rodolphoarruda 14y agoThere is an excellent book on the subject. It's really worth reading: http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Sandbox-Childhood-Rediscover-Business/dp/0809224380 http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Sandbox-Childhood-Rediscover-B...
- krenoten 14y agoAssumptions are a funny business. Think of them as a kind of cache. We absolutely must cache most of our beliefs about reality. It would quickly overwhelm us to compute every thought response to everyday stimuli. Many people think of the neocortex as a big computational device. In reality the data structure contributes more to our intelligence. In half a second we can easily recognize a familiar object. In that time, a signal can traverse perhaps 100 neurons. A cpu takes several orders of magnitude more. It is much more likely that we are retrieving most reactions rather than computing them. I highly recommend Jeff Hawkins' book "On Intelligence" if you want to learn more about this fascinating subject. But many of these cached computations have a timeout that we fail to honor. In fact everything that goes into the cache is information about a reality that no longer exists as it did. We nevertheless get so much utility from the old cache that it can be easy to forget to prune and update it. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Which leads to another interesting thing about assumptions. Your assumptions are always wrong. They probably yield a good amount of utility for you, but on some level they are incomplete at the very least. All of the items you pull out of your cache are improvable. Another way to look at it is that nearly all of our potential lies in the set of things that we currently reject.
- ZoFreX 14y agoA possibly related concept which your comment reminded me of is "the half-life of facts": http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4967344 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4967344
- lifeisstillgood 14y agoWhen I saw the article headline, my first thought was the five-year-old trait most likely to find in most leaders ... I want, I want, mine, mine, mine. And to be fair leadership is not about rediscovering child-like curiosity - it is about applying objective thinking rigorously and without ego - try looking at Poor Charlies' Almanck
- jonnathanson 14y agoSomeone once told me that a great way to find industries or competitors ripe for disruption is to play the childlike "Why?" game with them. You know, the one where you start with a broad proposition, then ask "why," and continue narrowing down until you're satisfied with the subsequent answers. When you reach a "Why?" for which there's no good explanation, you might be onto something.
- SoftwareMaven 14y agoAsking the "why" isn't the valuable part; it is answering that question. The effort to break down and understand the problem is what leads to the insights.
- jonnathanson 14y agoYes, but I think you're slightly misunderstanding me. The "asking why" is the breaking-down-the-problem process. I didn't mean literally just asking "Why."
- stephengillie 14y ago5-whys is a common root-cause algorithm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys
- j_baker 14y agoOne thing I've noticed: people who present themselves as old and wise aren't. The truly old and wise haven't forgotten what it's like to be young and naive.
- JVIDEL 14y agoTL;DR: don't be like the old farts from Xerox that discarded PARC's Alto and the mouse as a novelty.
- loahou04 14y agoi still act like i'm 5 all the time...i just bang on things until they work and then try and figure out what i banged on
- javajosh 14y agoWhy do some articles make the front page of HN, and other ones don't? Or the front page of Google News? How was it that Vine was getting so much attention for a few days, and then the buzz just...died? Did someone orchestrate that?
- nollidge 14y agoDo not contemplate the whims of the Hackertariat. A curious pinpoint of darkness soon grows closer, eventually enveloping you in its yawning black, chilling the marrow and ensnaring the wits. Artifacts and whispers float by but become dust in your grasp, slipping out and past your knuckles, carried away by the soft, silent wind. It was ever thus and shall never not be.
- isalmon 14y ago>> Exasperated, I silenced her questions with a bag of Cheetos. Is anybody still surprised that more than 66% of this country is overweight/obese?
- bitwize 14y agoNow that he appreciates her questioning, that may be one less fat kid. I've noticed that here in Murka, increasingly, people can't be arsed to engage with their kids. Kids are expensive, gaudy accessories, as anyone with (particularly female) Facebook friends who go through that "LOOK AT MAH NEW BABBY" picture posting stage can see; but actually engaging with them and treating them like humans is... well, it's too much work and hassle. So they shut them up with Cheetos or cookies or sketti or go-go juice and get on with what's really important, whatever that may be.
- icebraining 14y agoThe keyword in the first paragraph is "niece".
- roc 14y agoI don't think you want to lay the blame for the country's weight problem at the feet of decisions made by exasperated non-parents caught flat-footed in an office environment with a five-year-old spun up to "eleven".
- RyanMcGreal 14y agoI'm reminded of the old story about the guy who always cut the ends off the ham before putting it into the roasting pan. His wife asked him why, but he just said his mom always did it. She, in turn, said that her mom always did it. Finally, the wife got hold of her husband's grandmother and found out that she cut the ends off the ham because she only had a small roasting pan.
- saddino 14y agoUse Stock Photo of a 2-Year Old
- adamnemecek 14y agoSounds similar to the Zen Buddhist concept of Shoshin or beginner's mind. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin
- pbhjpbhj 14y ago>"When we got to the office, my niece did what all kids her age do. She questioned everything." Never really had this with our son, will wait and see if it comes with second child - when we're out I'm in a semi-continuous state of explaining as much as I know about interesting things around us and asking questions - "well what do you think?". I do wonder sometimes if my modus is destructive to curiosity but generally he's pretty questioning in terms of things.