“At the core of wisdom are these meta-cognitive processes. Those are the key ingredients that can help you figure out — in a very uncertain world, in the context of radical uncertainty — what to do.” ~ Igor Grossmann
I see clear curiosity overtones in the ways we think about wisdom — the meta-cognition processes of wisdom — including intellectual humility, openness to others’ ideas and insights, even the search for constructive conflict resolution.
So I wondered: is anyone thinking about wisdom through a curiosity lens?
Igor Grossmann, Ph.D. leads the Wisdom and Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario. He’s passionate about how people make sense of the world — and how cultural forces shape behavior and societal change.
We talk about those meta-cognitive characteristics of wisdom, how our idea of “curiosity” influences how it might contribute to wisdom, situational adaptations, how wisdom is expressed across cultures — and embracing intellectual humility when our assumptions about those presumed cultural differences prove to be all wrong.
Is being wise always good? It depends.
Good for whom? Good in what situation? In what time? For what value systems?
Listen to Choose to Be Curious Ep. 272: Curiosity & Wisdom, with Igor Grossmann
Igor Grossmann, PhD directs the Wisdom & Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Check out his On Wisdom podcast and the Wise Judgement Consortium.
I first learned of Igor’s research through this article in Nice News, a “space to catch up on uplifting news that might otherwise be missed”. Through their stories, Nice News “hopes our readers can see the world through a more optimistic lens.”
If you found this fun, you might enjoy these C2BC Classics: Street Wisdom, with David Pearl; Curiosity, Tiny Experiments & Liminal Space, with Anne-Laure Le Cunff; and The Ask Approach, with Jeff Wetzler.
Theme music by Sean Balick; “The Envelope” by Aeronaut, via Blue Dot Sessions.
You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
