review4

The Power of Stupidity
Kali

A review in Emprendedoras – August 13, 2010

also available as pdf
(better for printing)

This review was published in Spanish. It is based
on the English edition, so I think it’s appropriate
to place here an English translation.
I am particularly pleased with Patricia Araque’s comments
because of her focus in curiosity.
It is, indeed, the essence of learning.
And one of the best resources to reduce stupidity.
[g.l.]

Is curiosity
the essence of learning?

by Patricia Araque

“The important thing is to never stop questioning”
Albert Einstein

Though I am not very inclined to interpret the world in “binary” terms, the fact is that, with increasing frequency, I find myself dividing the people that surround me in those who are curious and those who are not.

When I look a little deeper into this simple reflection, I realize that curiosity is a common element in the entrepreneurs that I most appreciate and that I am meeting along the way.

While reading The Power of Stupidity by Giancarlo Livraghi, I find myself in a number of “aha!” moments (those that appear when, reading a good text, our mind finds better focus and we see everything a bit more clearly.)

Many of those are related to a key concept that he develops in several chapters: curiosity is one of the best ways of overcoming stupidity. According to him, curiosity is a talent that we can, and we should, constantly develop and improve, in many ways – a habit that is worth maintaining and developing with true love and care.

What if, instead of so many things that we run into, wandering with a mouse in Google, we were taught from the beginning to be curious? Should the only objective of schools be to encourage and improve this resource that we must have to be alive?

Einstein said that he had no special talent – he was only insatiably curious. And my humble opinion is that, certainly, it’s a habit that is the essence of learning. Answering constantly questions such as “how can I do this better?” “how can I make it more simple?” “how can I make it easier?” leads to the development of projects that help to improve the world and, undoubtedly, to reduce stupidity.

And you? Which is the next question that you think you should ask yourself?

“I keep six honest serving men,
they taught me all I knew.
Their names are What and Why and When,
and How and Where and Who.”
Rudyard Kipling

Patricia Araque