Curiosity Keeps Us Climbing
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Over the last decade, I’ve interviewed hundreds of people across nearly every function inside an organization, and I’ve had the privilege of seeing how those hires actually turned out over long periods of time. After years of watching who grew, who stalled, and who exceeded expectations, I’ve arrived at a simple conviction:
When curiosity about inner experience or the wider world felt absent or rehearsed in an interview, even the strongest résumé loses its edge.
Most job interviews follow a script that we’re all familiar with. A candidate arrives prepared (most of the time), polished, and ready to perform. They answer the questions. They walk through their résumé. They demonstrate competence. They start to check the boxes.
And yet, when the interview ends, something is missing.
Upon reflection, I’ve found that what was often absent isn’t intelligence, effort, or experience. It is curiosity.
Not the performative kind. Not the rehearsed “great question.” But the deeper impulse to explore, to wonder, to connect dots, and to lean toward what’s not yet known. I’d argue curiosity is among the strongest signals of growth we possess, yet it’s rarely on display in the modern interview.
Let’s talk through this.
What is Curiosity?
At its core, curiosity is simple to define:
“The desire to know, to see, or to experience that motivates exploratory behavior directed towards the acquisition of information”
Source: Litman, J. Curiosity and the pleasures of learning
Curiosity is the force that pushes someone to ask why when others accept what is. It’s what makes someone read one more article, pull on a loose thread, or question an assumption everyone else stopped noticing. Early in life, it starts with the never-ending “But why?” when we are just learning about the world in our toddler years (I have two children under 10, so I spend many days answering why). As we age, curiosity works best when it’s guided by good judgment, not by the urge to prove ourselves.
Paul Graham describes curiosity this way:
“There’s a kind of excited curiosity that’s both the engine and the rudder of great work. It will not only drive you, but if you let it have its way, will also show you what to work on.”
That distinction matters. Curiosity doesn’t just fuel effort; it directs it.
How do we become curious about a topic?
Ever get curious about curiosity? What motivates you to dig? Why do some ideas pull you closer than others? What makes one question linger while others recede?
Psychologists often cite The Psychology of Curiosity by George Loewenstein. In a paper published in 1994, Loewenstein proposes that curiosity arises when someone becomes aware of a gap between what they know and what they want to know, the Information Gap. Simply recognizing the chasm between what we know and what we don’t know incites curiosity. Curiosity is the unknown beckoning us to explore.
Interestingly, curiosity isn’t strongest when you know nothing about a topic (or when you feel confident about a topic - even if that confidence is not warranted). Curiosity is strongest when you know a little, but not enough. When we have a little knowledge about a topic, we want more.
Curiosity is the unknown beckoning us to explore. When we have a little knowledge about a topic, we want more.
Research shows that curiosity tends to decline with age. Reflecting on the last 20 years of being in corporate life, curiosity sometimes feels trained out of us; not because the impulse disappears, but because familiarity reduces the information gap that drives it. We grow complacent and stick with familiar habits while rarely pursuing the unknown.
In adulthood, we accumulate knowledge in our respective fields. We may even come to regard ourselves as experts. We may not know everything, but we believe we know enough, and so our curiosity withers. As we become more deeply entrenched in our adult routines and responsibilities, curiosity feels like a luxury we can’t afford. It’s unnecessary, time-consuming, and maybe even dangerous. In the workplace, especially, we want to appear “in the know.” We fear our curiosity may be mistaken for ignorance, that asking questions signals cluelessness rather than engagement. Or, if we ask too many questions, others may perceive us as difficult, and teams have a way of ostracizing “difficult” members.
I believe the name of the game is figuring out how we prevent curiosity from fading as we gain experience and grow older, while at the same time, letting judgement act as a filter, not a brake. After all, curiosity didn’t kill the cat; losing curiosity did, as Alastair Reid, the Scottish poet, put it beautifully in this 1959 issue of the New Yorker.
Here’s a small excerpt:
Most job seekers see interviews as tests to pass. The focus is on demonstrating competence, avoiding mistakes, and proving we’re a safe hire. These are all understandable instincts, especially in a market defined by uncertainty, layoffs, and shrinking margins for error.
As interviews come to an end, we often fall back on a memorized list of questions, moving from one to the next, without pausing to engage with the answers. We acknowledge responses, then quickly set them aside. When interviews turn into defensive, box-checking exercises rather than real conversations, the curiosity a candidate brings with them all but vanishes.
Roughly 18 months ago, I conducted an interview for a Director position at Geez Jobs. The candidate’s resume looked excellent: relevant experience, impressive career trajectory, and sufficient time with prior employers to make a real difference. All of the boxes seemed to be checked. I was the last person in the interview cycle to meet the candidate. Rather than asking the candidate a standard question about their background or prior role, I opened with “What questions do you have for me?” This serves as a barometer for a candidate’s innate curiosity.
I was shocked by the candidate’s response: “I’ve met your team, I have a clear understanding of the role, and I don’t have questions at this time.”
No questions, no observations, no curiosity. At that moment, I let out a reflexive sigh. This candidate was competent, but not curious. Competence without curiosity can look polished and still be very fragile because there’s no habit of asking “What’s changing?” or “What am I missing?”
We didn’t end up hiring that candidate.
Another common interview experience: the candidate who comes prepared with questions, but isn’t and/or doesn’t know how to show curiosity. I answer a question, and before the answer has time to settle, I’m met with, “Thank you for that - my next question is…” The exchange moves on, untouched. A complete lack of genuine, unbridled curiosity in the interview dynamic. It reveals a performative rhythm, not an inquisitive one. Interviews aren’t meant to be a checklist to work through. They are meant to be a shared act of attention, an opportunity for genuine interest and exploration on both sides of the table.
Curiosity signals how someone will grow once hired, not just how they perform or the knowledge they have on day one.
Photo: Mt. Nuptse
Recently, I read Kiss or Kill, Confessions of a Serial Climber by renowned mountaineer Mark Twight. The book is raw, full of emotion and inspiration.
Much of what Mark experiences, as told in this book through a series of essays, maps closely to how we think about and navigate our own careers. There is an essay in the book titled “Glitter and Despair” which recounts his 1986 attempt to climb the South Pillar of Nuptse. A brutal winter storm forces the team to turn back and in reflecting on that moment, Mark captures something that extends far beyond mountaineering, and something that has stayed with me when thinking about career progression:
“I gave way to fear, trading my dreams for the bland taste of survival.”
The line lingers for me because it captures a familiar compromise we make that governs our careers. It shows up when we stay in roles that feel tolerable but uninspiring, when we avoid asking hard questions, or when we delay making a move because the risk feels inconvenient rather than impossible. Over time, survival starts to masquerade as success.
When we are curious, we inevitably develop a growth mindset. Rather than simply surviving, we deserve to explore. Fear teaches us to conserve and to protect what we have. Fear discourages risk-taking and impedes discovery. What else is possible? What else could be true? If we are more fearful than curious, we may never know.
Reading about Mark’s journey impacted me profoundly. In fact, it gave me the impetus to start this newsletter.
Curiosity at Geez Jobs
During my time at Geez Jobs, we made a deliberate effort to encourage curiosity. We didn’t always get it right, but we valued progress over perfection. Momentum mattered most: enough forward motion to keep learning, adjusting, and improving.
- We offered professional learning and development stipends that weren’t tied to immediate job performance. Every person in the business had a small fund to explore topics that interested them, even if the ROI wasn’t obvious.
- We tried to host regular hack days, not just isolated to our Engineering and Product teams. Everyone participated as we stepped away from normal work to experiment and explore ideas.
- In the earlier years during my tenure, we hosted regular lunch-and-learns. These meetings allowed employees to follow their curiosity and learn about a topic or skill alongside their colleagues. Everyone was encouraged to lead a short talk, give a demo or an overview of a recent project
- We modeled curiosity at the top to make sure everyone understood we valued this characteristic. This meant asking “why,” admitting when we didn’t know something, exploring new ideas from all parts of the organization.
- We hired candidates who valued curiosity. We brought in some amazing people who, because of their curiosity, materially advanced our thinking around a topic.
Again, we didn’t get it right all of the time. Some of the above dropped off over time; sometimes, we didn’t model the best behavior to drive a curious mindset; sometimes, the fire of the day consumed our attention, supplanting the lunch and learn. Nothing was perfect, but we always strove to foster and reward curiosity.
Here is what I noticed over time: curious people didn’t just perform better. They adapted faster. They collaborated more deeply. They built trust. They energized rooms that would have otherwise gone flat.
Showing your curious nature in interviews
Curiosity isn’t about knowing the most. It’s about staying open. In interviews, I’d argue that what matters most isn’t your current knowledge, but the questions you’re still eager to explore.
As a simple heuristic to understand where you sit on the curiosity curve, I’d suggest this curiosity assessment tool from Harvard Business Review. Take it before your next interview, group brainstorm, or long, high-stakes meeting. The results won’t be earth-shattering, but that’s not the point. The value is in noticing your natural tendencies and becoming more aware of how curiosity shows up in your life.
Conducting hundreds of interviews, I’ve paid close attention to what curiosity looks like in practice. It’s rarely dramatic and it shows up in small ways.
Ask questions, but not the performative ones. Ask the small questions tugging at you about the role, the company, who the manager is. The questions off the beaten path will not only lead you to making a better assessment of the experience, but they will also show your aptitude for curiosity.
Follow-up to a response given. If you take the time to ask a question (which signals the response is important to you), and the interviewer takes the time to answer it, follow through. Take a minute to go deeper. You can ease into the follow-up.
- Rather than replying with: “Thanks for that reply,” and stopping there
- Try: “You mentioned X. Can I stay with that topic a bit longer and ask a follow-up question?” or “I hadn’t thought about it that way, especially the part about X. That raises a question for me about Y.”
It’s ok to expose what you don’t know. Do so strategically. If the topic is one you don’t understand, it’s ok. Take a breath. Say what you don’t know and show your thinking in real-time. It shows you don’t run from the unknown and you seek to understand.
Listen to what isn’t being said. I believe this is one of the most important signals of curiosity and one I rely on often. If you’re in an interview, reading an email, or listening to a presentation and notice something you expected is missing, pause and gently ask about it. Omissions usually point to uncertainty, tension, or assumptions worth examining.
Curiosity isn’t a personality trait we either have or don’t. It’s a practice you can choose to cultivate. In a world that rewards certainty and speed, staying curious takes intention, especially as we age. The people who continue to grow aren’t the ones with all the answers; they’re the ones willing to ask better questions, even when it feels easier not to.
Want to read more about this? Check out the links below:
Kiss or Kill, Confessions of a Serial Climber
Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It