5 DECEMBER 2024

Three Resources for Intentional Curiosity

In a previous blog, we talked about the Three Cs: Curiosity, Collaboration and Creativity. If you’re new here, please take a peek if you want some framing before going further.

So, we’re following up, carrying through on our promise to stay curious with three resources that can help get you started on the journey to answer the question: “What if we/you/me could do anything?”

The Marginalian

1. The Marginalian: Who doesn’t love a source for curiosity that begins with “Hey, I thought you could use a poem today…” And then opens with a statement like, “To me, freedom is the boundary condition where matter reaches for meaning–life, after all, is the only component of the universe free to comprehend the rest.”

Well, that’s a start. The Marginalian delivers weekly sources of inspiration, thoughtfully curated and delivered purposefully. The Marginalian demonstrates the value of a deep thinker and sensitive soul who takes time to present stories, resources and sources of inspiration that can serve as a catalyst for your own curiosity journey.

For us here at Alluvus, The Marginalian creates opportunity to pause over a cup of coffee and examine curiosity. As the author notes, “The Marginalian [has] always been profoundly personal–not overt advice to anyone else, but notes to myself about what I have needed to learn and keep relearning.”

The Marginalian is a resource we find useful for reminding ourselves of “our capacity to create — which is, essentially, a function of fruitful thinking — [and] is predicated on a vast and diverse pool of insights, impressions, influences, and other mental resources.”

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

2. Barking Up the Wrong Tree: This resource helps us examine this idea of creativity being a product of a vast and diverse pool of insights. Yep, we’re talking about a resource that helps to examine how we can work together. While The Marginalian can be deeply personal, Barking Up the Wrong Tree often helps us understand the importance and value of a team.

The author, Eric Barker’s voice is empathetic and delightfully curious, and the articles always link to useful resources that help inspire us about how we can work with our clients to create a culture of curiosity and foster teamwork. Here at Alluvus, we never go it alone – so, fostering an environment of curiosity and building a team that collectively contributes is the key. For example, this post on high performing teams notes that: “A huge part of team leadership is merely creating the right environment. Do that well and a lot of things fall into place automatically. A good team environment has 3 parts: safety, vulnerability, purpose.”

Barking Up the Wrong Tree helps remind us that while we need to foster our own sense of curiosity, it’s equally important to ensure that those we work with feel like their curiosity is also welcomed. The best ideas are a product of a team and a high-performing team is usually a function of how we relate to each other. This resource is a great starting point for understanding each other so that when you look across the table or into Zoom, you can relate to where s/he may be coming from…

The Public Domain Review

3. The Public Domain Review: – Why include this resource? Look no further than the Public Domain’s about page: “Founded in 2011, The Public Domain Review is an online journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas… As our name suggests, [our] focus is on works now fallen into the public domain, that vast commons of out-of-copyright material that everyone is free to enjoy, share, and build upon without restriction. Our aim is to promote and celebrate the public domain in all its abundance and diversity, and help our readers explore its rich terrain – like a small exhibition gallery at the entrance to an immense network of archives and storage rooms that lie beyond.”

The Public Domain Review is like that light that shines through from a forgotten closet door or an undiscovered attic and creates opportunity to discover. While these may be archives of ideas that came from many years ago – the Public Domain Review reminds us that while copyrights have an expiration date, unlike that box of almond milk in your fridge, these ideas and exhibits can be drawn upon again and again and again as a source of inspiration.

We’ll tap into the left-side of the brain soon enough. For today… if you’re looking for sources that can serve as a catalyst for curiosity. Please consider beginning here…

Oh! And if you take the time to examine these resources, bookmark them and/or subscribe to support the authors, listen and contribute to KNKX while you’re at it…