Rather than just studying curiosity biologically or psychologically, how can we explore the embodied experience in a way that teaches us all how to follow our natural desire of inquiry?
— RESEARCH & METHODOLOGY —
Our Research Interviews
ORIGINS
Our team could have started this research project by reading all the current books and articles on curiosity, soaking up the existing knowledge to begin connecting the dots. Instead, wondering if there was another approach, a more curious journey. We channeled our inner children and wandered out into the world, asking questions to find the timeless practices to keep following curiosity. How to go from knowing a thing to being that thing? And so began curious conversations with all sorts of people, and as of April 2021, we have had 75+ of these “Interview Rituals”.
INTERVIEW RITUAL
Beyond gathering knowledge and information from interviewees, the goal was to observe curiosity in action. Therefore a 60-minute conversation was developed to create a playful connection inviting them to follow their curiosity.
The following is an outline of the Interview Ritual using Joseph Campbell's journey framework:
Call to adventure: Personal invitation preparing and evoking curiosity.
Crossing the threshold: Each guest is asked to bring a song that grounds them. Listening to music together creates a transition from the busyness of life to a collective grounded space. If you are curious, you can listen to all the songs thus far: Spotify
The unknown world: Using a set of four curated questions each interviewee is guided through a curious conversation. To maintain the surprise so you can do it someday, all we will say is the questions range from playful hypotheticals to philosophical, to more personal realms.
The road back: Before ending the guest is prompted to take a moment of pause to reflect back on what they have shared, observed, and discovered.
Return & Farewell: The guest is then invited to lead a farewell ritual, a way of saying goodbye that they have a personal affinity for.
LEARNINGS
Rather than quick little takeaways that could be captured in 6 easy steps, the lessons were more subtle, complex, and embodied. Simply put the obvious yet profound insight gained was that the completion of an interview is less important than simply being curious about another.
For example, in the fifth interview; our guest brought Beethoven's 9th symphony as the song to listen to. This symphony is nearly an hour in length itself. Focused on moving through the 4 questions only 5 minutes of the famous music were allowed.
Months later, another guest brought a song that was over 15 minutes. Pausing and then following curiosity, the entire incredibly composed piece of music was listened to. Only later was it revealed that this song had significant meaning to the interviewee, and listening together at that moment unlocked insights and ideas that otherwise would have been unreachable.
SCIENCE
After several rounds of synthesizing the Interview Ritual data, it became evident that integrating existing knowledge could be done without influencing The Guiding Principles. So we explored interwebs, the library, and connected to scientists. The following books and resources have most informed our work and models.
CURRICULUM
Although the scientific information on curiosity is interesting, it is not easily applicable to daily life or presented in a way that piques the experience of curiosity. Often during the Interview Rituals, it was not what someone said it was what they did that presented key answers to practically following one’s curiosity. But the difficulty in this form of learning is that it is done through witnessing a model, one of our brain’s earliest and oldest methods. And so the curriculum developed from the simple goal of prompting embodied experiential learning.
IN CLOSING
What is most curious about curiosity is that you can be endlessly curious about it. After 50 or so interviews, it became clear there would always be more to discover as each person is a treasure trove of unique insights from their extraordinary life experiences. At that point, a joke arose about undertaking a personal challenge of continuing the Interview Rituals indefinitely. Only time will tell if such a thing can be maintained, but remember as the timeless maxim goes it is about the journey not the destination.
And lastly, your support goes a long way to create accountability and space for our team to continue this meaningful practice, so we thank you for your contributions.
CREDIT & GRATITUDE
— our interviewees —
Below are links to explore the amazing humans who participated in the Interview Rituals. There is a wide range of experience and expertise - follow your curiosity.
Barnet Bain
Producer, Director, & Author
John Law
Co-founder of Burning Man
Eun-Joung Lee
Innovation & Organization Designer
Christian Haunton
Anthropology & Religion Prof.
Dave Zabowski
Senior Animator
Former @ Disney
Ben Davis
Founder
Illuminate
Andi Cuddington
Lead Facilitator
@ Deloitte
Judi Brown
Co-Founder
CivicMakers
David Bassuk
Creative Director
@ White Horse Immersive
Greg Manley
Artistic Director
@ City of Play
Lyndsey Wheeler
Co-Founder
Camp Supernow
Maya Skinder
Experience Manager
@ Apple
Jessie Stettin
Associate Dir People Dev
@ C Space
Brent Bushnell
Co-founder
Two Bit Circus
Scott Weiss
White House Presidential Innovation Fellow
Maggie Hsu
Co-Founder
Gold House Collective
Jessica Kravitz
Producer
@ B Positive CBS
Aga Szóstek
Author: "The Umami Strategy"
Blaine Bartlett
Author and Founder, Avatar Resources, Inc.
Abraham Burickson
Artistic Director
@ Odyssey Works
Jericca Cleland
CCO & Director
@ Nørlum
Amber Cartwright
Product brand manager
@ Netflix
Ferdinando Buscema
Magic Experience Designer
Farouz Gibson
The Simplifier
Ayden LeRoux
Assistant Director
@ Odyssey Works
Aïcha Doucouré
Integral Coaching
@New Venture West
Honey Rosenbloom
DEI Analyst
@ Google
Larissa Conte
Founder @ Wayfinding
Oliver Farshi
Head of Design
@Kiva
Sumeet Bakshi
Dir of Counseling
@The Hamlin School
Jenny Sauer-Klein
Founder @ Scaling Intimacy School of Experience Design
Carlijn Kingma
Cartographer of Society
Jonathan Cook
Humanizing Business
Jim Van Buskirk
Writer & Librarian
Divine Bradley
Co-Founder
Liminality
Anand Vaidya
Prof of Philosophy
@ San Jose State
Toshi Hoo
Dir Emerging Media Lab
@ Institute for the Future
Dzigbodi Djugba
Artist
Rimma Boshernitsan
CEO @
DIALOGUE
Ridima Ramesh
Game Designer
@ IDEO
Eric Clough
Founder
212box
Afshad Dholakia
BI Analyst
@ Twitter
Virginie Glaenzer
Co-Founder
AcornOak
Iris Oved
Founder
The Paradox Lab
Alysha Naples
Chief Experience Officer
@ Tin Drum
Rose Crespo
Head of Promotion
@ Inside Circle
Albert Alexander
Senior Director
@ Dynamic Signal
Simon Hodges
Storyteller
Storyourself
Manjula Menon
Writer
Rachel Harvey, Aaron Taylor Harvey, & Leila Khosrovi
Founders
Original Reality Group
Adam Reineck
Global Design Director
@ IDEO.org
Ting Kelly
Red Lotus Temple
Manuel Manga
Co-Founder
Institute for Evolutionary Leadership
Katja Wessling
Founder & Director
@ Human Kapow!
Kristina Palovicova
Co-Founder
@ Secret City Trails
Alma Banuelos
Project Manager
@ The Architects Collective
Antigone Joanna Nastos
Modern Witch
David Reposar
Artist
Diane DeBlois & Robert Harris
Married 40+ years
Antiquarian Dealers
Ken Masters
Founder
AIP
Shannon Graybill
Founder & Director
@ Sparked
Ralph Talmont
Author, Founder, & Communicator
Randy Lubin
Entrepreneur & Game Designer
Carolyn McCandlish
Psychotherapist & Acting Teacher
Jessica Millett
Dir Talent Ops
@ Future State
Rachel Weissman
Founder @ Design To Be
previously Design lead @ Google
Arthur Nguyen
Neuroscience PhD student
@ Bavelier Lab, UNIGE
Arvind Venkataramani
Design Researcher
@SonicRim
Jenka Gurfinkel
Creator @ Spa x Home
Chris Everett
Minister of Beauty