One Thought

Having talked to a few people about what makes a person interesting, I think I’ve decided–it’s curiosity. Before I go further, let me define ‘interesting.’ To me, a few attributes constitute interestingness–an interesting person

1. is passionate about something;
2. has insightful and original things to say; and
3. is not afraid to take unpopular stances.

These attributes are, I think, both necessary and sufficient to establishing interestingness. That is, a person having these attributes is interesting, and an interesting person has these attributes. I am more assured of the former case than the latter, but let’s work with this definition for now.

My argument is that curiosity implies interestingness, and vice-versa. If I am correct, a curious person is interesting and an interesting person is curious. Because interestingness and curiosity are not obviously connected, this means that their (apparent) connection might make it easier to identify interesting people. Say I know a person is curious, but I am not sure yet if that person is interesting. If my argument holds, then I do in fact know that person is interesting–progress!

What makes someone curious? A curious person

1. is eager to learn;
2. is inquisitive; and
3. is able to see things as they are, rather than how she wants them to be.

Let me be clear about the last one. I don’t mean that a curious person accepts the current state of things and doesn’t try to change anything. I mean that a curious person doesn’t project preconceived views onto the world, or at least tries not to. A curious person wants to know how the world is; she doesn’t merely look for evidence to support her preconceptions.

I am arguing that the attributes of curiosity imply the attributes of interestingness (and vice-versa). Since a curious person is eager to learn, I would expect her to be passionate about something–and likely multiple somethings. I would expect her learning experiences to give her insightful things to say. Because she is inquisitive, and because she desires to see things as they are, I would expect her to take unpopular stances some of the time–the popular view of the world is not always the right one.

So a curious person is interesting. Is an interesting person curious? Of course, that depends on my definition of interestingness. However, I would guess that many people–or, to be a bit circular, the people I find interesting–share my definition, or at least something close to it (consciously or not). According to me, an interesting person is passionate, insightful, and willing to take unpopular stances. Suppose we have a person with these attributes who is not curious–who has none of the curious attributes. That means the person is not eager to learn, is not inquisitive, and projects her preconceptions onto the world. An uncurious person certainly could be passionate and willing to take unpopular stances. However, I don’t think an uncurious person would have insightful and original things to say (what experience would the insight come from?). Contradiction! Thus, a person who is interesting must be curious. Thank you, logic.

Of course, my definition of interestingness may be too narrow. I am certainly more convinced that curiosity implies interestingness than vice-versa. In any case, there does seem to be a strong connection between interestingness and curiosity, and that connection is …

… interesting.