Ep 160| Why curiosity is an excellent advantage for creative designer - 5 Ways to improve

Curiosity can be a great boon or a ban for a designer. The way in which you understand the curiosity matters, how well you develop over the time. And there are ways how you can improve your curiosity. And there are a lot of reasons why it is important scientifically for a person to be more creative, particularly for a product designer. It is very, very vital. In this podcast I'm going to tell you why it is very important to become a very curious designer and also how you can improve that. It's a learnable skill. It's not a magic or something which you cannot, which only some people acquire born. Okay? So in this podcast you will get more clarity on how you can improve your curiosity to become a great designer. Let's take a lot of notes and jump into this podcast. Of course, curiosity is being discussed over time. Lot of people have understood in their own ways, right? Let me tell you guys, curiosity is the mother of discovery. When we don't have a curiosity in anything, what we do, there is no fuel to grow, there is no fuel to innovate, There is no fuel to run our everyday to day life, right? Starting from the times of evolutionary, we gathered our food, we made our shelters, we had our relationships, we built our tribes and then we started living in a forest, we started living in farmlands, we started developing and evolving like that. This curiosity has been an extra added advantage. I'll tell you how it is. The reason why I'm talking is curiosity is something is linked to your psychological basis. It is increasing your activity of a brain reward system which is leading to a higher likelihood of exploring and finding novel solution. You know what, this is essential, particularly in a field of creativity where innovation and problem solving are the key. So psychologically our brain activity will be more towards the reward system. See, when we get a reward, we are happy, right? Curiosity stimulates your divergent thinking, allowing designers to explore multiple perspectives and you will connect the dots, you will generate variety of ideas that's very vital for a designer to build the top of others in a rapidly changing landscape. Guys, staying curious really helps you a lot in terms of building your own understanding, your style, your innovativeness and your continuous learning towards how you can improve that will make it more relevant to the current trend. It's very vital. So how do you, how do you really see this? See guys, curiosity has been associated with increased risk of brain activity. I told you so. It is linked to much of neuroscience. And you know what? Curiosity enhances your memory retention and recall, particularly if you're very curious about certain things. Your memory Recall will be like very faster. You'll be like recollecting things faster and you'll be taking decision much easier. So designers who approach their work with lot of curiosity are more likely to remember and apply the new concepts rather than people who learnt it several times before and they are not using their curiosity. See, this will lead to continuous improvement in your design skills, guys, because you are continually keeping your brain active so that your chemicals are getting worked and then your neurons are fired every single day in order to give you lot of connections, lot of new ideas, which is innovative. Let me tell you, curiosity is often intrinsically motivated. Okay, Intuitively, like inherently meaning individuals are driven by their internal desire, not by the external motivation. Because of this internal desire. Internal desire they explore and understand. Because intrinsic motivation is associated with a very sustained effort. Guys, you know if you watch our YouTube exterior motivation, right? Extrinsic, you, you will get fade away one or two days, it will run away. But if you get intrinsically motivated, which is keeping you engaged and sustainable for a longer time, which is very vital for a designer, guys, facing complexity, challenges in the problem, lot of problem solving we are doing every single day, different stakeholders, clients. So it is very valuable for a designer to really understand the scientific facts. Okay, Jagdish, you said it's important. Okay, so how do I really improve? Let me tell you simple easy strategies, guys. You don't have to break your head. See, basically I will tell you first you need to find out why you wanted to become a designer. What is the real value add you wanted to make. If you are not finding out this, I would not say this podcast is going to have any impact on you. You can switch off and you can leave. Simple. Because if you are not motivated enough, why do you wanted to become a designer? Internally, I don't think you will be really curious. So find out that. That's the first thing. Second thing is see, start to read about human evolution a little bit, start to understand nature's biomimicry, start to understand little about what's happening biologically around you. I'll tell you guys the way in which you tend to understand the world, how it has got evolved or developed, rather than just keeping on sticking towards certain religious thoughts and beliefs, which is okay, but you will have to see the scientific understanding as well. You tend to develop more curiosity towards the nature. You will tend to get attracted to certain things which is inherently imbibed in our DNA, in our system, in our brains, in our ancestral genes, which can make us really curious because curiosity Is a trait which has brought us really evolve as a successful Homo sapien human beings. Guys, because if you are not curious enough, if you are not innovating something, we will be either taken away by some of our old ancestors, or our predators, or the animals, or the dinosaurs, or the anything which is already evolved in the past. So we are here. One such good reason is we are a very curious human beings. We are a very good meaning making machines. That's what my professor used to call. Humans are just meaning making machines. Used to call. Again, we all used to debate with him and still I debate with him. But the thing is, it's a good thought to understand. I mean, I cannot deny that also. Okay, Humans are meaning making machines. Anything happened to us, we'll do some meaning making. So the evolution and the meaning making things made us creatively think and move forward as a human band. So you need to understand that evolutionary thing is that the second thing. Third is chemically we get excited. I already told you about the brain reward system. Okay, Jagdish, this is what is happening. So what I can do next? See, I found my why what you want to become a designer? Second, I understood little bit about evolution and other things. Third is I've understood how chemically it is happening inside my body in order to get the reward system happening. Fourth is you can ask lot of questions, guys. See, encourage first yourself to ask lot of questions about process. Why? What? What is the real need? How? Why are we doing this? Any point of time, if you ask the question why are we doing this project? Who is our client? What is the real reason? If you ask quality questions, your life will start changing in that way. It will start changing in a profound way. Okay? Rather than just thinking something, ask quality questions to your life. The act of questioning stimulates your curiosity and it opens up new avenues for your exploration. Second, diversify your readings. See, always read different journals, industries, topics. Being a designer, it's very good to understand different perspective. Always provide fresh insights to your brain. Feed with lot of pictures, videos, new concept, new ideas. Because the moment if you diversify, your curiosity will increase and your brain will start thinking in that pattern and it will never come to the normal. So understand this. Third is embrace challenges. See view challenges as an opportunity, guys. Don't have a very rigid mindset. Have a sense of curiosity which can overcome that. Fourth is network and collaborate. See, always you need to talk with different designers, professionals, which is direct of your field, indirect of your field. Diverse domains always tend to collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. The reason why I'm telling you is you will find lot of different connections and different ideas which can bring a new novelty for your concept. Fifth is continuously learn guys. Okay, so this is very important for a designer to really understand these basic things. And you know what guys? Curiosity stems from the brain's reward system. I told you, it's a feel good neurotransmitter which is released, which is motivating us in order to learn more, strengthen the neural connections and enhance our creativity. So now you got the clarity. In fact, a study by University of California, Berkeley found that curiosity can predict creative achievements. Individuals with high curiosity were more likely to come up with original ideas. Another study published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Survey suggests that curiosity leads to broader knowledge base which fuels your innovation and it makes a lot of connection between different, different unrelated concepts into making a clear concept. So get this guys. It's a beautiful thing. So if you're able to follow this method, you'll be able to improve your curiosity in a broader way. Ask questions, diversify your reading and knowledge and embrace your challenges. Don't see as a ban and network and collaborate with people and continuously learn it. If you're able to do this guys, I'm sure you will see a huge difference in your career path. Okay? So thank you so much for listening to this podcast. If you find this useful, give me a best star rating on Apple and Spotify. We'll see you in another episode. Take care. Bye Bye guys.