A recent discussion of curiosity prompted me to start wondering about the importance of curiosity as a factor in research. Most people seem to agree that curiosity is a useful intrinsic motivator for research at the macro level. And discussions I’ve seen make a strong case for curiosity working better as a motivation for research at the macro-level than other potential motivators—status, prestige, etc. But, every time I read or think about this, I’ve felt this nagging unease that I only just managed to pinpoint the source of. My unease comes from my uncertainty about how much curiosity can drive act as a single source of motivation to do day-to-day work in the absence of “discipline”.
Personally, as I mentioned in a comment on this post, I haven’t found that curiosity on its provides sufficient motivation for me to continue making progress on work day after day. Even for work I’m genuinely interested in, there tend to be parts that are more and less interesting, so I still need to employ daily scheduling to make continuous progress.
However, I’m a nobody, and famous thinkers like Richard Feynman talk about how they’re motivated by the pleasure of finding things out and getting unstuck by playing. I love Feynman as much as the next person, but am wary of over-updating on his example or the public persona of any eminent thinker for that matter.
So instead, I’m curious to hear from people here: how much are you able to motivate yourself day-to-day via curiosity? Does this motivation substitute for scheduling / planning or complement it? Bonus points for discussing what your work tends to be and whether there are certain parts of it that you are more / less motivated to by curiosity.
[Question] How much motivation do you derive from curiosity alone in your work/research?
A recent discussion of curiosity prompted me to start wondering about the importance of curiosity as a factor in research. Most people seem to agree that curiosity is a useful intrinsic motivator for research at the macro level. And discussions I’ve seen make a strong case for curiosity working better as a motivation for research at the macro-level than other potential motivators—status, prestige, etc. But, every time I read or think about this, I’ve felt this nagging unease that I only just managed to pinpoint the source of. My unease comes from my uncertainty about how much curiosity can drive act as a single source of motivation to do day-to-day work in the absence of “discipline”.
Personally, as I mentioned in a comment on this post, I haven’t found that curiosity on its provides sufficient motivation for me to continue making progress on work day after day. Even for work I’m genuinely interested in, there tend to be parts that are more and less interesting, so I still need to employ daily scheduling to make continuous progress.
However, I’m a nobody, and famous thinkers like Richard Feynman talk about how they’re motivated by the pleasure of finding things out and getting unstuck by playing. I love Feynman as much as the next person, but am wary of over-updating on his example or the public persona of any eminent thinker for that matter.
So instead, I’m curious to hear from people here: how much are you able to motivate yourself day-to-day via curiosity? Does this motivation substitute for scheduling / planning or complement it? Bonus points for discussing what your work tends to be and whether there are certain parts of it that you are more / less motivated to by curiosity.