In some cultures, majority of people tend to be more scientific than the others. According to Neil deGrasse Tyson, scientific is not just about being scientists. It’s a difference between seeing a piece of rock and the truth (of the universe) inside it. I’ll tell you about three levels of curiosity — Superficial, Factual and Disruptive—and why I think they contributes greatly to success and failure in any one person, organization or nation.
Superficial
At this level, people simply consume what is handed to them. They read something in the news, on a blog or social networks like Facebook and they immediately take it as it is and often share it. This can be downright dangerous to the legitimacy of truth. When information is taken and shared without much thought given, it can become viral and generatively grow into truth. This level of curiosity (or lack of thereof) is often witnessed in under-developed or developing countries where the people are susceptible to media control, propaganda and advertisements from authorities and highly influential private entities. People with this level of curiosity hardly stop to question information, and can hardly distinguish facts from fabrications.
Sometimes, general concentration of this level of curiosity can be a result of prolonged moral judgement and fear of punishment, for instance in some totalitarian cultures where the leading figure manipulate information (and often education) and enforce brutal prosecutions or mass sanctions on curious minds.
Factual
This is average level of curiosity. People with this level do not take information as it is on the spot, but pause to find legitimacy in the source or different comparisons. Legitimacy of the source of information often plays more role in the consumption of factual believers. For instance, a news given out directly from distinct entities like US government(?) or Apple will likely be credible since these entities will have to endure high consequences for fabrication of information. In developed cultures, this level of curiosity is often a superficial baseline. Also, factual believers often double-check by googling different sources for comparison or wikiing what they have learned before letting it sink in and sharing.
Organizations with an average level of curiosity often thrive. An ideal ecosystem for this type of believers must be built around trust, strong encouragement in scientific-thinking and fair competition, empowerment, democracy, low bureaucracy and seniority and most importantly deep faith in the rules, laws or constitution.
Disruptive
Few people have this level of curiosity, since it is often difficult to go against the mass. Disruptors do not just believe in facts, but they often deny and attempt to debunk them. If you do not stop at Wikipedia or Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, you’re likely a member of this group.
World’s change agents such as Galileo, Einstein, Tesla, Van Gogh or Hawking are often disruptive (non)believers. Most of these people often endure hardships in their lives and suffer lack of social acceptance. Only a few who have managed to actually made real disruptions are exceptionally accepted.
Note that in some edge cases, highly-influential disruptors can also become threats to advancement and morality. Adolf Hitler, for instance, had managed to made his disruptive belief mainstream and inflicted a major wound in humans history. Chairman Mao Zedong of China had caused more than 20 millions Chinese to starve to death with the implementation of his disruptive misjudgement.
Managing Curiosity
Most of the time, we shuffle between these levels under different circumstances. We are in the midst of an information overload, and it is impossible and even catastrophic to stick to only one level for every piece of information at hand. How one prioritizes information and allocate the right level of curiosity to it often indicates how successful and productive he or she is in today’s Information Age.
