Where does your curiousity come from and what have you learned because of it?

I was thinking about asking questions, and how being curious about things makes it easy to ask questions. I tend to ask a lot of questions. So much that I tend to embarrass my daughter sometimes, such as when we were at the high school fair, I posed a lot of (she would say “too many”) questions to her potential high school teachers.

I’m always curious. About just about everything. I like to know how things work. I like to know who people are—what they’ve done; where they’ve been in their lives.

But where does curiosity come from? It seems like curiosity provides a survival advantage, but it also seems to me that there is a personal component to the development of one’s sense of curiosity. I don’t really know where my personal curiosity comes from. But then, I’ve never thought to wonder that before. It’s just always been there.

I think people, especially parents, have a love/hate relationship with curiosity. We want our kids to learn, but we don’t want them to get into trouble.

To the question. Thinking back on your life; what has your curiosity lead you to do? What have you gained (or lost) because of what your curiosity lead you to do? Do you know any of the inspirations of your personal sense of curiosity? Has your curiosity ever been stifled in any way in your life?